Recreated practices by Mapuche women that strengthen place identity in new urban spaces of residence in Santiago,Chile

The phenomenon of migration to cities by indigenous Mapuche people of Chile is associated with various consequences, such as the loss of ethnic identity and cultural practices. This study aims to describe how ethnic identity is maintained through the recreation of ancestral cultural practices that Mapuche women promote in their families, generating identification to new spaces of residence. This qualitative research draws on analyses of forty-eight interviews conducted with twelve families from four neighbourhoods in Santiago. The study reveals ways in which key traditional Mapuche practices are translated and recreated through the processes of place-referent continuity and place-congruent continuity in new urban areas of residence which in turn express variant forms of ethnic identity and everyday politics of care that extend beyond folkloric notions of rural indigeneity and more static political ideologies of ethno-national autonomy.     

Exploring continuity equation via a modeling activity: in the context of crowd science

Abstract

Using problems from real life contexts which is related to learners’ environment or their culture plays an important role in their learning that concept. In this regard, science educators especially physics educators search for real-life domain of theoretical concepts for effective science teaching and they consider analogical and physical models as an opportunity in their instruction. In the presented activity, we worked with 66 senior pre-service science teachers from our science teaching methods course. We used crowd movements as a real-life domain of our analogical models to scientifically explain a stampede case, then utilized physical model to explore continuity equation. Real life problem based scenarios could be used while taking advantage of the 3?D modeling in teaching of scientific principle. As a result, we found that pre-service teachers were able to make scientific explanation for causes of stampedes by using modeling activity. High school teachers and upper-level instructors could benefit from including the modeling activity introduced in this study to help their students understand the concepts related to continuity equation by designing a physical model based on an analogical model. Via the physical model, students are able to make predictions, observations, interpretations and explanations of a complex and abstract scientific phenomenon.