World Cultures & Knowledge Traditions

The many ways peoples have lived, known, and made meaning — held side by side with respect.

K–12 objective ladder

• K D08.S2.K.01 Listen to a story or song from another culture and share one thing they noticed.
• 1 D08.S2.01.01 Describe a family or community tradition and what it means to the people who practice it.
• 1 D08.S2.01.02 Compare how two families or communities celebrate or mark an event, such as a birthday, harvest, or new year, and notice what is different and what is alike.
• 2 D08.S2.02.01 Describe the daily life of children in another place or time, including food, homes, work, and play, using stories or pictures.
• 2 D08.S2.02.02 Identify one knowledge or skill a particular people has developed, such as farming, weaving, or wayfinding, and explain what it helps them do.
• 3 D08.S2.03.01 Compare how two peoples met basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing and explain how their environment shaped those choices.
• 3 D08.S2.03.02 Describe a story, song, or art form from a culture and explain what it shows about what that culture values.
• 4 D08.S2.04.01 Describe a knowledge tradition of a specific people, such as herbal medicine, star navigation, or oral history, and explain how it is kept and passed on.
• 4 D08.S2.04.02 Compare how two cultures explain the same natural event, such as the seasons or the Sun, through story and observation.
• 5 D08.S2.05.01 Compare origin stories from two or more peoples and explain how each reflects the people who tell it.
• 5 D08.S2.05.02 Describe an achievement in art, building, or learning from a non-European civilization and what it shows about that society.
• 6 D08.S2.06.01 Explain how knowledge is passed from one generation to the next through oral tradition, written records, or apprenticeship, using examples from different peoples.
• 6 D08.S2.06.02 Describe how a technology or idea spread between cultures and changed as it moved from place to place.
• 7 D08.S2.07.01 Analyze a scientific or technological achievement from a non-European civilization, such as in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, or engineering, and its effect on the world.
• 7 D08.S2.07.02 Compare how two different knowledge systems, such as indigenous ecological knowledge and formal science, understand and care for the natural world.
• 8 D08.S2.08.01 Compare two knowledge traditions in depth and explain what each offers and where they agree and differ.
• 8 D08.S2.08.02 Analyze a case of cultural exchange and blending, such as foods, languages, or beliefs meeting, and what new things grew from it.
• 9 D08.S2.09.01 Analyze how a knowledge tradition was suppressed, marginalized, or lost through colonialism or conquest, and how peoples have worked to preserve or revive it.
• 9 D08.S2.09.02 Explain how the mixing of cultures created new traditions and identities, using specific historical examples.
• 10 D08.S2.10.01 Evaluate the ethics of sharing, borrowing, and taking knowledge and culture across peoples, and who has been credited or harmed.
• 10 D08.S2.10.02 Analyze how global trade and technology have spread and transformed cultural traditions in the modern world.
• 11 D08.S2.11.01 Evaluate the relationship between dominant and marginalized knowledge traditions and argue for how marginalized voices can be centered.
• 11 D08.S2.11.02 Analyze how peoples have maintained and revitalized their languages, traditions, and knowledge in the face of pressure to assimilate.
• 12 D08.S2.12.01 Weigh multiple knowledge traditions side by side and articulate a respectful, non-dogmatic relationship among them.
• 12 D08.S2.12.02 Reflect on how honoring many knowledge traditions contributes to a more just and flourishing shared human story.

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