Bridging Universals and Ecologies: Local Wisdom as a Cognitive Ecology for Children’s Core Knowledge Domains
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59890/ijsr.v4i4.7Keywords:
Core Knowledge, Local Wisdom, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Early Childhood Education, Cognitive PsychologyAbstract
This study proposes an integrative conceptual framework examining the structural relationship between children's universal core knowledge and local wisdom in shaping intelligence. Addressing the theoretical fragmentation between biologically driven cognitive foundations and culturally bound Indigenous Knowledge Systems, we explore how local wisdom acts as a cognitive ecology that activates core knowledge. Methodologically, we employ an integrative review of 52 Scopus-indexed sources and conceptual mapping, alongside a simulated dataset of children (N = 120) to test the model's empirical feasibility. Results from the simulated data indicate that higher exposure to culturally embedded environments enhances composite intelligence scores, particularly in social cognition. This framework contributes a novel, decolonial cognitive-developmental paradigm, demonstrating that early intelligence is an ecologically situated, culturally mediated formation.
References
Abebe, T., Dar, A., & Lysaa, I. M. (2022). Southern theories and decolonial childhood studies. Childhood, 29(3), 255-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682221111690
Abrahamson-Richards, T., Beck, K. L., Brandon, K., Oligario, A., Pfeiffer, C., Valenzuela, D. A., Stover, K., Raiwalui, L., & Jordan, L. (2026). Critical and underrecognized home visitor competencies: Indigenous knowledge, culture, and self-determination in early childhood service delivery. SSM - Mental Health, 9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2026.100604
Adom, D. (2022). Catch them young: Children as messengers of indigenous ecological knowledge for biodiversity conservation in Ghana. Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity, 6(3), 12-25. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6522108
Akuno, E. A., Addo, A. O., Andang'o, E. A., Emberly, A., Davhula, M., & Matiure, P. (2023). Sub-Saharan African musical learning communities. In The Oxford Handbook of Early Childhood Learning and Development in Music (pp. 439-463). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190927523.013.26
Allen, A., Kavanagh, A. M., & Cassaithe, C. N. (2024). Beyond Single Stories Changing Narratives for a Changing World. Emerald Group Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/979-8-88730-510-3
Allison-Burbank, J. D., Conn, A., & Vandever, D. (2023). Interpreting Dine epistemologies and decolonization to improve language and literacy instruction for Dine children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(3), 707-715. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00147
Amutabi, M. N., & Hamasi, L. (2023). Indigenous knowledge systems and medicine in Kenya. In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Kenya (pp. 279-290). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15854-4_21
Bang, M. (2015). Indigenous students. Encyclopedia of Science Education, 493-494.
Baradon, T., & Bain, K. (2016). Interfacing infant mental health knowledge systems: Reflections on the narratives of lay home visitors' experiences of learning and applying relational concepts of development in a South African intervention program. Infant Mental Health Journal, 37(4), 424-439. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21566
Bradford, A. C., & Harris, J. L. (2003). Cultural knowledge in African American children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 34(1), 56-68. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2003/006)
Calvet-Mir, L., Riu-Bosoms, C., Gonzalez-Puente, M., Ruiz-Mallen, I., Reyes-Garcia, V., & Molina, J. L. (2016). The transmission of home garden knowledge: Safeguarding biocultural diversity and enhancing social-ecological resilience. Society and Natural Resources, 29(5), 556-571. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2015.1094711
Chagwena, D. T., Fernando, S., Tavengwa, N. V., Sithole, S., Nyachowe, C., Njovo, H., Datta, K., Brown, T., Humphrey, J. H., Prendergast, A. J., & Smith, L. E. (2024). Formulation and acceptability of local nutrient-dense foods for young children. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13605
Charlton, E., Clarke, J., Teal, R., Hamilton, S., Fisher, C., & Millar, L. (2025). Approaches that support Indigenous children and families in the transition to school: A systematic review. Australian Educational Researcher, 52(6), 4581-4609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-025-00911-8
Datta, R., Kayira, J., & Datta, P. (2022). Land-based environmental education as climate change resilience. In Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education (pp. 214-233). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326011-11
Dean, M. R. U. (2023). Indigenous knowledge for social cohesion, ecological and community well-being, and climate resilience: Reviving Indigenous salt crafting in Vusama, Fiji. AlterNative, 19(3), 711-724. https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231194205
Dempster, E. R., & Hugo, W. (2006). Introducing the concept of evolution into South African schools. South African Journal of Science, 102(3-4), 106-112.
Dewi, R., Hanun, F., Hadiana, D., Sylvia, N., & Ramdani, Z. (2025). Silih Asah, Silih Asih, and Silih Asuh (SILAS): A decolonial conceptual framework for relational early childhood education in the Sundanese context amid global childhood discourses. Global Studies of Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106251398516
Dube, E. (2023). Bindepinde [stout rope] theology and religio-political dialogue in Zimbabwe. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 79(4). https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v79i4.8976
Dugle, G., Bishop, S., & Muthuri, J. (2025). Relational coordination of state partnership with traditional birth attendants: Soft partnering in Ghana's maternal and child healthcare context. Social Science and Medicine, 380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118238
Elder, H. (2013). Te waka oranga: An Indigenous intervention for working with Maori children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury. Brain Impairment, 14(3), 415-424. https://doi.org/10.1017/BrImp.2013.29
Elliott-Groves, E. (2022). Why and how communities Learn by Observing and Pitching In: Indigenous axiologies and ethical commitments in LOPI. Infancia y Aprendizaje, 45(3), 567-588. https://doi.org/10.1080/02103702.2022.2062916
English, M., Canuto, K., Schulenkorf, N., Evans, J., Curry, C., Slater, C., & Caperchione, C. M. (2023). Co-designing a health promotion program for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls: Lessons learnt. Health Promotion International, 38(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daad011
Fong-Emmerson, M., Hill, B., Lambert, C., Ryan, M. M., & Dougan, R. (2025). Leveraging consumer socialisation agents to increase Indigenous student participation in higher education. Journal of Social Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-04-2025-0116
Gillespie, J., Albert, J., Grant, S., & MacKeigan, T. (2020). Missing in action: Indigenous knowledge systems in evaluation of comprehensive community initiatives. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 35(2), 170-187. https://doi.org/10.3138/CJPE.69099
Greenwood, M., Larstone, L., & Lindsay, N. (2018). Indigenous children in the context of family and nationhood. In Pedagogies for Diverse Contexts (pp. 97-111). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351163927-10
Griffith, E. F., Opondoh, A., Kaluwa, C., Nakadio, E. L., Rotich, K., Kipkemoi, J. R., Levin, J., Mutua, J., Mor, S. M., & Amuguni, J. H. (2026). Stakeholder priorities and conceptualization of One Health: Insights from fuzzy cognitive mapping and grounded theory. PLOS ONE, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338167
Hannaway, D., & Du Preez, H. (2021). Ethnocentric shapeshifting: Seeking traces of culturally responsive teaching and caring amongst early childhood education lecturers. Africa Education Review, 18(1-2), 51-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2022.2109050
Hare, J. (2012). They tell a story and there's meaning behind that story: Indigenous knowledge and young Indigenous children's literacy learning. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 12(4), 389-414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798411417378
Hewson, M. G., Javu, M. T., & Holtman, L. B. (2009). The Indigenous knowledge of African traditional health practitioners and the South African science curriculum. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10288457.2009.10740647
Hodgson, C. R., DeCoteau, R. N., Allison-Burbank, J. D., & Godfrey, T. M. (2022). An updated systematic review of risk and protective factors related to the resilience and well-being of Indigenous youth in the United States and Canada. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 29(3), 136-195. https://doi.org/10.5820/aian.2903.2022.136
Huidina, J., & Yamsani, S. (2026). Folk wisdom and traditional knowledge: A study of mother and child healthcare practices of Maram Nagas in India. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 61(1), 301-315. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096241287709
Idham, A. Z., & Alimsyah, A. S. (2025). Pendidikan Jasmani untuk Pembentukan Karakter di Era Society 5.0: Membangun Generasi Sehat, Cerdas, dan Tangguh di Tengah Revolusi Digital. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=QxOcEQAAQBAJ
Idham, A. Z., & Idham, A. F. (2026). Pendidikan dan Kesehatan Mental Di Era Digital: Kajian Teoretis dan Strategi Implementasi dalam Konteks Pendidikan Modern. CV Eureka Media Aksara.
Jiyane, L. (2026). Exploring storytelling methodologies on childhood development: A collaborative study with early childhood education practitioners in rural settings. Perspectives in Education, 44(1), 20-37. https://doi.org/10.38140/PIE.V44I1.8692
Kalenga, R., Ned, L., Alperstein, M., & Banda, D. (2020). Indigenous knowledge exclusion in education systems of Africans: Impact of beingness and becoming an African. In African Studies: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 510-533). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-3019-1.ch027
Kubow, P. K. (2018). Schooling inequality in South Africa: Productive capacities and the epistemological divide. International Perspectives on Education and Society, 34, 161-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920180000034016
Madondo, F., & Tsikira, J. (2022). Traditional children's games: Their relevance on skills development among rural Zimbabwean children age 3-8 years. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 36(3), 406-420. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2021.1982084
Madziva, C., & Chinouya, M. J. (2020). Clay ingestion during pregnancy among Black African women in a North London borough: Understanding cultural meanings, integrating Indigenous and biomedical knowledge systems. Frontiers in Sociology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.00020
Maimela, G., & Nedombeloni, R. (2026). Decolonising the mainstream education and preserving Indigenous knowledge systems: Learning through African Indigenous games. AlterNative. https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801251403201
Martinot, P., Colnet, B., Breda, T., Sultan, J., Touitou, L., Huguet, P., Spelke, E., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., Bressoux, P., & Dehaene, S. (2025). Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade. Nature, 643(8073), 1020-1029. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09126-4
Massi, L., Weatherall, L., Nielsen, C., Toombs, M., Fredericks, B., & Rae, K. M. (2023). It's research, our input can grow: Identifying health research priorities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Research Involvement and Engagement, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-023-00467-w
Matang, R. A. S., & Owens, K. (2014). The role of Indigenous traditional counting systems in children's development of numerical cognition: Results from a study in Papua New Guinea. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 26(3), 531-553. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-013-0115-2
Matapo, J. (2021). Mobilising Pacific Indigenous knowledges to reconceptualise a sustainable future: A Pasifika early childhood education perspective. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 15(1), 119-136. https://doi.org/10.17206/apjrece.2021.15.1.119
Mathebane, M. S. (2021). Afrocentric social work practice guidelines for assisting African clans raising children with congenital abnormalities. Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development, 33(2). https://doi.org/10.25159/2415-5829/7327
Mawere, M. (2012). The struggle of African indigenous knowledge systems in an age of globalization: A case for children's traditional games in south-eastern Zimbabwe. African Books Collective.
McCarty, T. L., & Lee, T. S. (2015). The role of schools in Native American language and culture revitalization. In Indigenous Education: Language, Culture and Identity (pp. 341-360). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9355-1_17
McRae, T., Isaac, J., Coffin, J., Carapetis, J. R., Walker, R., & Bowen, A. C. (2026). Person, Provider, Practice and Policy-P4: A framework for two-way learning and Aboriginal community-led health promotion and evaluation. Dialogues in Health, 8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dialog.2026.100302
Mensah, E. O. (2023). The appropriation of animal names as personal names in Ibibio and Tiv onomastic traditions in Nigeria. In Personal Names and Naming from an Anthropological-Linguistic Perspective (pp. 217-238). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110759297-012
Mji, G., Kalenga, R., Ned, L., Alperstein, M., & Banda, D. (2016). Indigenous knowledge exclusion in education systems of Africans: Impact of beingness and becoming an African. In Handbook of Research on Social, Cultural, and Educational Considerations of Indigenous Knowledge in Developing Countries (pp. 36-59). https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0838-0.ch003
Mohlabane, N. (2022). Unsettling knowledge boundaries: The Indigenous pitiki space for Basotho women's sexual empowerment and reproductive well-being. Health Sociology Review, 31(2), 158-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2022.2079092
Mokhele-Ramulumo, M., & Gumbo, M. T. (2025). A conceptual framework for early childhood science education for global citizenship education: An indigenous lens. Perspectives in Education, 43(4), 66-83. https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v43i4.8019
Mokhutso, J. (2022). An analysis of the cases of teenagers dying in taverns in South Africa: Some Biblical and African considerations. Pharos Journal of Theology, 103(2). https://doi.org/10.46222/pharosjot.103.201
Mudau, N., Matshidze, P., Netshandama, V., & Masoga, A. (2018). Reflections on practices of U laya nwana: Towards an Afro-sensed approach. African Renaissance, 15(1), 181-195. https://doi.org/10.31920/ropo_15_1_18
Mugumbate, J., & Chereni, A. (2019). Using African Ubuntu theory in social work with children in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Social Work, 9(1), 27-34.
Mwinsa, G. M., & Dagada, M. (2025). Play-based learning: A pedagogical approach for social skills development in ECE learners in Zambia. Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101396
Nare, L., Love, D., & Hoko, Z. (2006). Involvement of stakeholders in the water quality monitoring and surveillance system: The case of Mzingwane Catchment, Zimbabwe. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 31(15-16), 707-712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2006.08.037
Sarangapani, P. M. (2003). Indigenising curriculum: Questions posed by Baiga vidya. Comparative Education, 39(2), 199-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050060302552
Seehawer, M., & Breidlid, A. (2021). Dialogue between epistemologies as quality education. Social Sciences and Humanities Open, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100200
Shabalala, N. P. (2025). Decolonising environmental education in Africa through the early integration of indigenous knowledge systems guided by Zibanjwa Zisemaphuphu. Discover Sustainability, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-025-01822-5
Shani, S. (2024). Accumulated funds of knowledge among privileged Maasai: An emphasis on virtues and morals in parenting practices. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 55(2), 185-204. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12485
Tomora, D. D., & Jirata, T. J. (2026). Decolonizing early childhood education: The role of Sidama Affini in fostering emotional intelligence and cultural identity. Journal of Early Childhood Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X261428250
