There is no consensus in the science education research community on the meanings
and representations of western science and indigenous knowledge or the relationships
between them. How students interpret these relationships and their perceptions of any connections
has rarely been studied. This study reports student perceptions of the meaning and
relationship between scientific and cultural knowledge. Personal meaning maps adapted for
small groups were conducted in seven culturally diverse schools, school years 7–9 (with
students aged 12–15 years) (n=190), with six schools in Western Australia and one school in
Malawi, Africa. Of the six Australian school groups, two comprised Australian Aboriginal
students in an after-school homework programme and the other four schools had a multicultural
mix of students. Students in this study identified connections between scientific and
cultural knowledge and constructed connections from particular thematic areas—mainly
factual content knowledge as opposed to ideas related to values, attitudes, beliefs and identity.
Australian Aboriginal students made fewer connections between the two knowledge domains
than Malawian students whose previous science teacher had made explicit connections in her
science class. Examples from Aboriginal culture were the most dominant illustrations of
cultural knowledge in Australian schools, even in school groups with students from other
cultures. In light of our findings, we discuss the construction of common ground between
scientific knowledge and cultural knowledge and the role of teachers as cultural brokers and
travel agents. We conclude with recommendations on creating learning environments that
embrace different cultural knowledges and that promote explicit and enquiring discussions of
values, attitudes, beliefs and identity associated with both knowledge domains.