Page 341 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Chapter 26
Envisioning Polysemicity: Generating Insights
into the Complexity of Place-Based Research

Within Contested Spaces

Christina A. Siry

In Implications of Sense of Place and Place-Based Education for Ecological
Integrity and Cultural Sustainability in Contested Places, Steven Semken and
Elizabeth Brandt explore the construct of place and suggest that place-based educa-
tion can serve as a mutually advantageous transaction between people and place in
contested areas. In this chapter, I extend the implications they have introduced and
contend that a critical theoretical perspective is required in work with contested
places and displaced people in order to recognize the multitude of complexities
involved. Building from their work, I suggest using polyvocal and polysemic
research in and around contested places as a means to acknowledge multidimen-
sional intersubjective perspectives while also emphasizing connections to place.

Introduction

Steven Semken and Elizabeth Brandt discuss foundations of place-based education
and posit that such an approach can be advantageous in contested places for sup-
porting ecological integrity and cultural sustainability. Their review of the literature
on place-based education and sense of place is thorough and clearly represents the
myriad possibilities for exploring the ways in which people make meaning and
form attachments to particular places. I bring my perspectives grounded in socio-
cultural theory to further these ideas as I explore their discussion of the contested
area of Superior, Arizona, and I elaborate on the implications that they introduce,
with the aim of exploring the complexity and tensions inherent in endeavors toward
education in contested spaces.
I conduct science education research framed through critical perspectives, and
as such I consider issues of power and seek to recognize and encourage multiple

C.A. Siry
University of Luxembourg

D.J. Tippins et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism, 315
Cultural Studies of Science Education, Vol. 3, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_26,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010