Page 345 - Cultural Studies of Science Education
P. 345
26 Envisioning Polysemicity: Generating Insights into the Complexity 319
and educational research within a contested place can be to bring people together
with disparate histories, with an emphasis on how to value and learn from the
others’ perspectives and support place-based education to promote change in envi-
ronmental contexts and in socio-historical contexts as well.
Seeking Polysemic and Collaborative Research Approaches
Research is not neutral. It is informed by what people bring to the process, including
their theories, perspectives, and intentions (Martin et al. 2006, p. 170). In a context
that is fraught with contested perspectives, research that is polyvocal and polysemic
can serve to provide an opportunity for people to provide their perspectives and as
such, it is research that not only documents, but that seeks to politicize, and prob-
lematize. One of the questions that is raised for me in reading this work is, where
are the voices of the participants? Basu (2008) has suggested that including partici-
pant voices into educational research can give power to communities of practice as
well as adding to theory, and it is toward this end that I imagine adding the voices
of those involved in the research would strengthen the points made in the chapter.
Semken and Brandt conclude with mentioning action research, and building on this
point, I am suggesting an approach blending a focus on place-based education with
collaborative research approaches, in order to work toward shared decision-making
and problem-solving coupled with local activism.
A polysemic approach to collaborative research provides recognition and affirma-
tion, as it encourages a variety of stakeholders (teachers, students, local residents,
indigenous peoples) to recognize the differences in their place/history/community
and emphasizes the need for working together from the inside, rather than have
decisions solely decided in courts and boardrooms. Incorporating a dialogic focus
(Bakhtin 1981) can support such polysemicity. Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogue is much
more than the words that are used in a conversation. It is a way of life that replaces
a monologic approach with an understanding and acceptance of difference and
multiple perspectives. Through fluid approaches that are negotiated by stakeholders
to be responsive to difference (Tobin 2008), participants identify what is salient and
together attempt to come to issues and concerns for focus, and a sense of place can
support them as they discover their individual and collective connections. Positioning
research in this manner motivates collective action and politicizes place-based
education to become situated within the broader socio–political–historical context.
Polyvocal, polysemic research is a theoretical and political tool that embodies
praxis, in that the action that is undertaken is informed by the theories that emerge
and evolve from collaborative relationships. As power shifts, there are opportuni-
ties for taking increased agency as participatory, polysemic research breaks down
the traditional boundaries between “researcher” and “researched.” In addition to the
possibilities of place-based education within the communities broadly, teachers
in the local schools could contribute to the process of seeking solutions by consid-
ering the historical contexts that have led to the point the communities are at.