Page 329 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Chapter 25
Responding to Place

David B. Zandvliet

Introduction

Why do we learn about environmental issues? It is in part because of a growing
concern about the state of the environment, yet we are often confused by the com-
plexities of the economic, ethical, political, and social issues related to it. Daily,
references are made in the popular media to issues, such as climate change, loss of
biodiversity, pollution, and continued job losses in our communities.
Still, the issues we face, as individuals and within our broader society, are so
pervasive and so ingrained within our cultural ways of being that we can no longer
look to science and technology alone to solve these problems. As a consequence,
I believe that environmental learning should include a sustained critique on the
dominant societal and industrial practices that contribute to both widespread and
localized environmental problems as experienced by communities worldwide.
My reading of Semken and Brandt’s work suggests to me that they share this
view of environmental learning. In response to a critical view of curriculum –
they assert that place-based education may be a more beneficial form of science
education – particularly in contested areas/places, where they describe the many
disputes over land and resource use, access, or ownership as essentially conflicts
among different “senses of place.” They illustrate this idea by describing two
case studies of recently displaced indigenous groups, and an analysis of an ethno-
graphic study of contested places. They assert through this work that place-
based education can be a beneficial transaction among people and place – if it
enhances the senses of place and local knowledge of students and teachers, and
fosters a care for places that promotes their ecological integrity and cultural
sustainability.

D.B. Zandvliet
Simon Fraser University

D.J. Tippins et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism, 303
Cultural Studies of Science Education, Vol. 3, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_25,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010