Background: Bridging the gap between local and scientific knowledge can have useful implications in the teaching-learning process because it can create environments conducive to the valorization of sociocultural diversity in schools. The present review aims to analyze the profile and contributions of scientific publications dealing with articulations between local and scientific knowledge in basic formal education.Method: Combined searches of 14 terms related to ethnoscience and 20 terms of education were conducted in English, Portuguese, and Spanish using the databases ofWeb of Science,Scopus,Science Direct, andScielo. The recovered works were filtered, organized in a spreadsheet, and analyzed for publication characteristics (year, author, periodicals, countries of origin of the authors, and countries surveyed) and contents of the studies (epistemological bases, techniques of application, and record of the articulation of local and scientific knowledge).Results: The research field that establishes these articulations is growing, with 81% of the works being written in the English language. A total of 494 researchers were recorded. The USA, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and Australia were the countries of origin of the first author for the majority (64%) of the works considered. Multiculturalism, Vygotskian theory of learning, postcolonial theory, constructivism, critical pedagogy, and the argumentation theory were the main theoretical bases of half of the recovered works in which some explicit theoretical orientation could be found. Teacher training and interviews stood out as important tools in the application and record of links between local and scientific knowledge, respectively.Conclusions: Interdisciplinary approaches were common in the conception and application of pedagogical activities reported in the recovered works. Articulations between local and scientific knowledge are effective for culturally-sensitive scientific education, especially (but not exclusively) in schools directly related to traditional communities. There was a tendency to emphasize the teacher as a fundamental agent in the search for education that establishes these articulations. The authors of the analyzed works frequently indicated a need for greater proximity of the community to school spaces.

Goats are important from a socioeconomic perspective for the poor in arid regions, worldwide. Nevertheless, more than half of the local breeds in the world are threatened and have not been fully characterized. The Canindé is one of the main local breeds of northeastern Brazil and, like most, their effective numbers have fallen over the years and needs to be characterized. Many tools are available for assessing the phenotypic profile of a breed and multivariate techniques are important when considering all variables simultaneously. The present study utilized multivariate techniques for phenotypic characterization of the Canindé goat breed from 11 morphometric variables (HL = head length; FW = face width; HW = head width; BL = body length; CG = chest girth; WH = wither height; SRH = sacral region height; CW = croup width; CL = croup length, SP = shin perimeter and ES = ear size) and morphological variables of qualitative character (presence and absence of earrings, horns, beard, abnormal teat number and hair length) collected from herds from different states (populations) in the northeast of Brazil. Multivariate analysis allowed the differentiation and characterization of the evaluated individuals, HL, FW, WH, SRH and BL variables were the most important to define the phenotypic profile of the studied populations. Examined whether spatial organization of individuals was assessed in each state of the Brazil demonstrated considerable diversity of phenotypes within breeds from the different states. These data could be used successfully in a conservation breeding programme.

The genetic diversity of six Brazilian native goats was reported using molecular markers. Hair samples of 332 animals were collected from different goat breeds (Moxotó, Canindé, Serrana Azul, Marota, Repartida, and Graúna) from five states of Northeast Brazil (Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia, and Piauí). A panel of 27 microsatellites or single sequence repeats (SSRs) were selected and amplified using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. All populations showed an average allele number of over six. The mean observed heterozygosity for Brazilian breeds was superior to 0.50. These results demonstrated the high genetic diversity in the studied populations with values ranging from 0.53 (Serrana Azul) to 0.62 (Repartida). The expected average heterozygosity followed the same trend ranging from 0.58 (Serrana Azul) to 0.65 (Repartida), and the values obtained are very similar for all six breeds. The fixation index (Fis) had values under 10% except for the Moxotó breed (13%). The mean expected heterozygosity of all Brazilian populations was over 0.50. Results indicated a within-breed genetic variability in the Brazilian breeds based on the average number of alleles and the average observed heterozygosity. The interbreed genetic diversity values showed proper genetic differentiation among local Brazilian goat breeds.