Page 126 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

7 Engaging the Environment 103

paradigms, and literature through Eurocentric canon. An educational system that
has the expectation and goal of creating a stronger democratic and diverse populace
must include an environmental and science education that takes a highly nuanced,
contextualized, and intersectional approach where the interconnections, relationships,
and tensions between the value systems of science, western industrial culture, and
local/global ecologies need to be looked at together in concert with one another.
When I teach my preservice teachers about ecojustice pedagogy, I often include a
phrase that I have developed in order to have students consider, explore, and
interrogate: “Technology has become our ecology.” This statement is often one of
disequilibrium for preservice teachers and encourages them to do a deconstructive
analysis about the intersections of social, cultural, and ecological practices and
mindsets in local and global contexts. Ultimately, they need to generate questions
for their students to investigate around these intersectional relations in order to
more fully understand the pressures and tensions around environmental conditions,
as well as to be able to authentically participate in their communities.
Why is having this complex level of understanding something that I consider
to be “liberating” in an educational context and especially in environmental educa-
tion? In many ways, this is the difference between a short-lived “feel good” expe-
rience and a more potentially tumultuous and arduous experience that has greater
potential for a longer-term effect. In the process of uncovering the null curriculum,
or the messages that are typically silenced, ignored, or marginalized, there can be
some overwhelming feelings of sadness and despair. Thoughts and feelings of
surplus powerlessness (Lerner 1986) might be present in the initial stages of
uncovering injustices and practices and mindsets that produce them. However,
Roth shows us how students who actively engage in their community with very
challenging environmental topics thrive and deepen their understandings, as well
as, feel mobilized and empowered to do this type of work in their communities.
There is no doubt that the political realms of these students’ communities are con-
nected to the ecological when they present their findings in a public forum to local
government officials. This political experience shows students that the social,
cultural, and ecological are all connected and that we should not shy away from
potentially “hot button” topics. It also is an important opportunity to discuss how
to engage in a dialogue that has intentions of building community rather than cre-
ating polarization and divisiveness, something that is unfortunately all too com-
mon in the current political landscape in the USA. When Roth describes students
authentically investigating current ecological conditions and engaging in dialogue
in their communities, this demonstrates a “liberatory education,” a Freirian notion
of education connecting with the empowerment of marginalized groups, whereby
students contribute their voices toward the raising of awareness and advocating for
more balanced approaches and sustainable relationships. In doing so, students are
also interacting with the tensions that cannot be ignored, whether they are eco-
nomic or social pressures. This ambiguity caused by the tensions at the intersec-
tions of social, cultural, and ecological conditions is the larger reality, and to be
able to operate democratically, one must be fairly comfortable and certainly able
to maneuver in the ambiguity of those tensions.