Page 351 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

27 Place-Based Education as a Call from/for Action 325

A different turn is taken by Karrow and Fazio as they explore the concept
educating-within-place as enactments of care within citizen science for ecojustice.
They examine the degree to which citizen science programs (e.g., NatureWatch)
are founded upon various conceptions of place as they inform place-based educa-
tion theory by considering natural, cultural, and ontological realms of experience.
Whereas natural and cultural realms of experience are theorized within place-based
education, they maintain, the ontological realm is formatively developed. Drawing
on hermeneutic phenomenological perspectives, they unpack this ontological realm,
revealing the primacy of the existential of care. They conclude that a program like
NatureWatch has the capacity to invoke the ontological realm through care and
place-based education theory and hence could attain greater coherence through the
ontological realm. In other words, educating-within-place could provide a useful
conceptual structure to unify place, with being, and educating.
Contradictions inherent to place are taken up in the dialogic response of Adams,
Ibrahim, and Miyoun Lim. Recognizing the relevance of the ontological realm, they
engage in a fundamental discussion on the concept of “place” and the localization
of learning pertaining to education-within-place. They further explore the notion of
invoking the ontological in place-based education and derive a number of general
principles for place-based education. From this discussion, one can learn that place-
based education is not merely a pedagogy that brings science education to specific
loci. Rather, it can be considered a broader methodology for understanding issues
of “placelessness” currently at stake in education. Hence, a focus on place can be
considered a dialectic unit mediating both methodology and pedagogy. Interestingly,
they also recognize the primacy of the existential of care for place-based education
unpacked by Karrow and Fazio. This idea matters to the aims of this book, since
these authors argue that the confluence of both place-based education and ecojustice
is necessarily founded upon care, thereby once again dissolving tensions surrounding
ideas pertaining to place-based education and ecojustice.
Issues of care and placelessness are addressed as well by Pagan who features
river advocacy as a means for valuing complex systems as the groundwork for river
relationships. The concept of river advocates refers to the meaningful, transactional
thought, and action relation of an individual who, through ongoing personal and
collective experiences with watersheds, develops a heightened awareness of particular
rivers and views them as complex living, biological communities. Consequently,
these advocates demonstrate caring thoughts and emotions originating from their
relationships and appear to reflect on a realization of their own actions, that is,
how they contribute or disrupt rivers, which motivate them to take further actions.
In contrast, she addresses stream studies, which environmental educators commonly
use to develop their students’ understanding of the interrelationships of the natural
world and provide them with an authentic context for investigating problems asso-
ciated with our resources. Her critique focuses on educators’ aim of collecting and
analyzing numerical water quality data, which reduces the complexity of a river to
the degree that it limits how students relate to and understand biological systems.
In this context, she suggests a move toward river advocacy as an overarching aim
of reform grounded by stream-based activities. Accordingly, curricula should be