Page 10 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Foreword ix

is the role of culture in science learning?” and “How does a science teacher become
an effective instructor of underrepresented, low-achieving, racially marginalized
students?” In one article, David, a Hawaiian science educator, reveals how articu-
lating his own cultural heritage helps him connect with indigenous students. David
brings ethnic and social relevance to his curriculum through place- and culture-
based science education. David does not just teach about Hawaii through the stan-
dardized curriculum. Instead, he and his students cruise the island viewing its flora
and fauna through David’s native perspective fused with indigenous art forms such
as Hula. This unique vantage point helps all students, but especially engages “at
risk” students, who are given perhaps their first opportunity to bond with and take
ownership of their own lands. These students learn how to be successful in school
and beyond.
The final section of the book ponders how educators can infuse science educa-
tion with indigenous knowledge systems using the local to help the global.
Indigenous people around the world are fighting to keep their lands and natural
resources from the capital corporate enterprises looking to earn their fortunes.
(Sounds a lot like mining unobtainium on Pandora, does it not?) Many of these
contested places are hotspots in science education research. One question asked in
this section is: “How can these communities work together to achieve cultural sus-
tainability for the indigenous people, community survival for the residents of the
town and ecological integrity of the natural settings?” Place-based education is
introduced as a viable tool that can help indigenous people navigate the power
structures that wage war for their lands. Place-based education, along with partici-
patory research, are portrayed as tools that help indigenous people work with their
land sustainably thereby fostering vibrant communities who live symbiotically with
their natural environment. These beautiful narratives consider indigenous groups
from around the world.
Let us bring science and environmental education back to the here and now, out of
the textbook and into the farmers market, with it tendrils stretching out into worm-
turned soil, subsurface aquifers, and many generations of traditional knowledge. The
world is being gobbled up, faster than a teenager inhaling a bag of chips. But it is
these special places around us that provide real nourishment. In these places we quiet
our minds, our breath is taken away in amazement, we have fun and sweat, we talk
to our God, and we sink our toes into the earth that provides the sweet corn we cher-
ish. Science and environmental education gets cut off from its roots when it denies
the nearby. Comenius, a seventeenth-century educator, said: “Knowledge of the near-
est things should be acquired first, then that of those farther and farther off.” Through
starting with the nearest things, the places we can walk to, the local watershed, the
animal shelter, the Registry of Deeds, the community garden, we root the curriculum
in things we can touch, and be touched by. Once we are touched, we want to know,
and the wanting to know becomes the quest for knowledge. Science, rooted in place,
becomes a way for students to set right the world.
Paige Jackins
David Sobel