Page 219 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Chapter 16
Educating-Within-Place: Care,
Citizen Science, and EcoJustice

Doug Karrow and Xavier Fazio

Introduction

We bring to the academic debate on place-based education (PBE – science), ecojustice,
and indigenous knowledge a distinctly different perspective on the relationship
between humans and their world. While contemporary conceptions of place tend to
reinforce modern distinctions between subject and object, our conception of place,
founded upon being, attempts to ameliorate these binary distinctions. Within the
literature on PBE a variety of conceptions of place extend influence over the
movement. The natural realm, that is, a physical location, orients early conceptions
of place. Gradually, the veneer of the cultural realm has extended influence over
place to include community. Presently, a sophisticated cultural realm considering
complex social and political factors has extended place meaning. The literature
review indicates little consideration of place from the ontological perspective. Our
work explores the ontological realm through the philosophy of hermeneutic phe-
nomenology – a philosophy premised upon human relationship with the world.
Place conceptions inclusive of the ontological and the resulting influence they have
on PBE movements have the potential to replace a traditional and prevailing form
of knowledge as representation with a view of knowledge as a subspecies of a kind
of thoughtful dealing with the world capitalizing on transcendent experiences with
nature and our primordial capacity for care.
Accordingly, this chapter demonstrates how a conception of place-based educa-
tion (PBE) referred to as educating-within-place founded upon the ontological
realm, is necessary to the potential of citizen science for ecojustice. It consists of the
following sections: (a) Introduction, (b) An overview of citizen science and
NatureWatch, (c) Place meanings and place-based education, (d) The philosophy of
Martin Heidegger, and lastly (e) Place-based education and ecojustice.
Subsequent to this introduction, this section provides an overview of citizen
science, i.e., NatureWatch, a simple ecological monitoring and assessment program.

D. Karrow and X. Fazio
Brock University

D.J. Tippins et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism, 193
Cultural Studies of Science Education Vol. 3, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_16,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010