Page 111 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

88 K. Love et al.

Rural (as well as urban and suburban) teachers can tap into this sense of local
agency as a way to build local, place-based science-learning experiences. Regardless
of the setting, teachers need to address feelings of internal domination (Irwin 1996)
and perceptions of surplus powerlessness (Lerner 1986) when situating curriculum
in present community issues. These issues may present themselves as initial barriers
that produce apprehension and unwillingness for students who engage with com-
munity issues. Internalized domination is an internal perception that reminds us that
we cannot always act in a particular way, because of some attention and backlash
associated with all acts. Surplus powerlessness is the overwhelming feeling that
despite our best efforts, change is seemingly disproportionate and unlikely to happen
(also see “nihilism”). When a general sense of agency within a group of students or
in a school district reflects a sense of access and mobility in ways that allow for
voices to be legitimized and part of a community’s decision-making process, they
become more likely to take action (articulated by Roth). However, if feelings of
disempowerment, disengagement, and disenfranchisement persist and dominate the
classroom setting (often fueled by a larger sociocultural condition or a euro-western
industrialized culture of for-profit agendas, hyperconsumerism, and rugged indi-
vidualism), teachers need to simultaneously develop learning experiences that focus
on “desocialization” (Shor 1992). Another way of thinking about desocialization is
developing a student’s deeper consciousness about social structures interwoven in
the production of our own thinking, feeling, and acting which occurs within a social
and ecological context. Just as we should be aware of teaching in ways that produce
extreme or even moderate feelings of “ecophobia,” teachers should also approach
these ecosociocultural topics in ways that do not exacerbate feelings of internalized
domination and/or surplus powerlessness, which is often characterized as a doomsday
description. In other words, teachers need to attend to students’ feelings of agency
or lack thereof, regardless of the places where they live. The strength that place-
based experiences offer is that students will be able to interact more directly with
some of the relevant issues within their environments and see how their contributions
play out in tangible ways.
Ultimately, as scholars, it is crucial that we do not set up binaries between urban/
rural, urban/suburban, and suburban/rural settings, with one setting producing more
or less feelings of agency or surplus powerlessness, and therefore, abilities to teach
with place-based science practices similar to Roth’s description. As science teach-
ers, it is important to know and create place-based pedagogy around one’s social,
cultural, and ecological community. But it is equally important to understand the
social community and levels of agency that are present in order to work with stu-
dents and community members in ways that connect with their beliefs, feelings, and
perceptions of empowerment or powerlessness (along with the origins of these
worldviews). To fully understand the robust community-based, ecological issues
within science education means to understand the intersection of sociocultural and
ecological within a community.
Teddie: Both of you bring up the all important role of the teacher in identifying
authentic opportunities (and ideologies) that will advance science learning, promoting
feelings of empowerment and sense of place, attending to learners’ sense of agency,