ABSTRACT
I next argue that the paradigm shift has began to occur; thus it is no longer the norm to view indigenous or Eastern approaches to education as primitive, savage, barbaric and so forth. On the contrary, western civilization seems to be seeking ways to rejuvenate itself, to address the dead end (e.g. lack of social and environmental sustainability, the challenge to the idea of progress and development) it currently faces. Thus, the ‘discovery’ of alternative indigenous histories took place quite recently and connected with a paradigmatic shift, or a ‘postcolonial turn’. Partly, this discovery is about writing a more ‘accurate’ description of those precolonization times, as seen from the perspective of contemporary peoples. And partly, this discovery, or ‘recovery’, is about making choices in terms of whose/which/what kind of history is to inform present choices and decisions of the future. That is, this, alternative, history is often described in terms of what is lost, and could possibly be regained, and in terms of what should be remembered and never repeated.
