Page 211 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

4 D.J. Tippins and M.P. Mueller

Sociocultural is no longer applicable when we hold that human beings are not separate
from what influences and impacts lives, namely, the environmental conditions that
largely determine us. We are only part of the ideologies of knowing and relating that
we call epistemology and ontology; surely Earth will have its way. Indigenous knowl-
edge reminds us that nature will always correct for ways of knowing out of sync with
the natural world.
This book does not theorize ecosociocultural; however, the term is used throughout
as a way to foster the reopening of our book.
If we remain open to the confluence, then there are sure to be controversies, which
will lead to new research questions, ways of impacting our local communities, and
educating others. However, when we think we have it all figured out, disruptions
create aggregations not yet foreseen. So controversies are good. They are a part of
living in relation to others who hold diverse perspectives and see things that we see
in a different light, while together we see it in a much greater light and so forth. It is
with this challenge that ecosociocultural brings out a new light to make the visible
invisible and invisible more visible, to have new conversations about what we see in
the place near us (the way we make sense of place is as much a book as a book). In
seeing ourselves in a new light, we sense the place diversely. But difference is good,
that is when we begin to see confluence. Ecosociocultural gives us a new lens to open
our old books and find new ideas, inquiries, differences, theories, and scholarship.
Are you ready to take your books off the shelf and dust them?

References

Roth, W. M., & Tobin, K. (Eds.). (2009). The world of science education: Handbook of research
in North America. Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
Smardon, R. (2009). Sociocultural and cultural-historical frameworks for science education. In
W. M. Roth & K. Tobin (Eds.), The world of science education: Handbook of research in North
America. Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.