Page 244 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

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are expected to stick to a regimented ideal of science as dictated by the curriculum.
Drawing on place might be seen as deviating from the “script” of science schooling.
So, I agree with Miyoun that making students’ relationships with place more explicit
will draw in the differentiation of localized identities that could make place “authentic”
and learning more motivating.
Miyoun: Classrooms tend to mirror or reflect what happens outside and thus
tensions arise in classrooms. For example, when curriculum tries to universalize
and decontextualize learning from students’ place identities, students respond by
critiquing, disengaging, or resisting. What I have learned from students is that, as
Carter (1993) said, contextualized and unique localized identities cannot and will
not be “wished away.” I think this is a critical and practical question for any PBE
effort: How are we making sure to acknowledge, invite, and even capitalize localized
identities or place identities of our students as part of our PBE efforts?
Jen: Miyoun, this is an important question if we are thinking about PBE from a
critical perspective, that is, how could we use PBE to create an equitable science
learning experience for all? This reminds me of Keith’s story, Kozoll and Osborne’s
(2006) narrative of the Jamaican American preservice teacher. They describe him as
a “success story for science education” (p. 2) because unlike many minority students,
“Keith found a place in science,” where he was able to develop a love for and an
identity with the subject and this provided him with a lens with which to view his
world (Kozoll and Osborne 2006, p. 162). His experiences of observing ants, gardening
with his mother, and catching anoles enabled him to give context to what he learned
in school. According to the authors, Keith found that the science he learned in school
(high school and college) not only connected to what he did as a child, but also helped
to deepen his sense of wonder and knowledge about the natural world.
However, the sad part of the story is that Keith’s schooling did not facilitate this
connection, but rather served to separate his science learning experiences from the
context in which he learned much of his science. Keith’s interest in science started
from his experiences of science-in-a-place and as a child these experiences were
not separate from his interactions with family and friends, in other words not sepa-
rate from his lifeworld. While he was able to contextualize his experiences with
science in school, it did not seem to go the other way, where his sense-of-place
was deliberately brought into his school science experiences. Keith was left to
make those connections on his own or rather extract his science-rich connections
from his informal, holistic learning experiences. This makes me wonder how much
richer a science learning history Keith would have had if his school science experi-
ences allowed him to bring his own ontology to bear in the classroom. While he
was able to create an identity around science, did science allow him to maintain
prior identities, perhaps including his sense of traditional ecological knowledge?
Keith came into his high school and college science classes with a rich understanding
of the natural world, but in my opinion, left with a more fragmented, dualistic view
of the world.
Miyoun: That situation is one of the major concerns in science education that
we have. When science education fails to make connections between students’
lifeworlds and science, students have difficulties in finding purposes and meanings