Page 350 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

324 M. van Eijck

to stress the confluence of place-based education with both indigenous knowledge
and ecojustice.
A call from local action of individual subjects is given in high detail once Chinn
and (David) Hana‘ike present an auto-ethnographic case study. They apply cultural-
historical activity theory as a lens to understand a genealogy of personal learning
leading to professional action as a Native Hawaiian science teacher. The genealogy
reveals a unique set of life experiences that support an agentic self affecting change
within and across activity systems. David engages in middle school reform involving
curricular restructuring and teacher collaboration focused on student learning. Two
cross-school studies find his program supports higher student satisfaction and higher
science grades of students with below average test scores. David’s ongoing develop-
ment of a strong Hawaiian identity and sense of place supported the integration of
cultural activities into school programs. From these accounts of local action through
place, Chinn and Hana‘ike call more globally for action for culturally responsive sci-
ence teacher education and professional development once they suggest that David’s
experiences fit within a range of activity systems which support establishment of
transdisciplinary networks oriented to teacher and student learning.
Stewart, in her response, deconstructs the pedagogy put forward by Chinn and
Hana’ike through an Indigenous lens. She emphasizes how western academic prac-
tices often fail to meet the needs and expectations of Indigenous students at all
levels of education. One way to understand this failure is to examine both standard
western academic knowledge systems and Indigenous teaching and learning styles.
Her position as a Canadian Indigenous academic offers a perspective on these
issues by articulating current concerns in the context of existing literature and the
case study of Chinn and Hana’ike. She identifies current issues relevant to Indigenous
teacher education and explores an Indigenous pedagogy as a decolonizing and
valuable way to engage secondary and post secondary students from diverse inter-
national Indigenous perspectives. Hence, she further delves into the complexity of
contested places such as can be found in Hawai’i and Canada, expanding the local
message from action to an even wider, global audience.
The complexity of contested places is also the focus in Martin’s response, who posi-
tions a critical pedagogy of place as an analytic framework for considering the spatial-
temporal-socio-historical-cultural contexts of place. Unpacking the cultural–historical
complexity of Hawai’i, she extends this analysis to a discussion about the need for
teacher education programs that actively prepare teachers to reflect on the interrelation-
ships between cultural and ecological environments, specifically in the context of sci-
ence education. For science curricula, this implies the promotion of an understanding
of the socio-ecological relationships between people and place that aims to empower
individuals in communities to engage in decolonization and reinhabitation of shared
places and spaces. Although place appears as a complex matter throughout the first
chapter and the two responses, the global call for action emerges as less complex. This
is so because these chapters reveal a confluence by dissolving some of the tensions sur-
rounding ideas pertaining to place-based education and indigenous knowledge. That is,
in this globalizing world, education focused on contested places inherently deals with
similar theoretical issues pertaining to indigenous knowledge and vice versa.