Page 48 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

24 R.A. Martusewicz et al.

understand that this localized, situational practice does not require the importation
of oil from troubled areas of the world or support the violence often needed to keep
it flowing.
In both cases, science educators play a vital role in guiding students’ learning
along paths of inquiry that support living systems, as well as identify and interrupt
ways of thinking/acting that threaten them. Avoiding typical mechanized metaphors
that objectify what is being studied, the teachers use language and engage both
bodies and minds in ways that invite the students to recognize their relationships to
soil as a complex living entity. As part of this process, students work to address
ways in which aspects of science knowledge and methods can be used explicitly to
protect life. At the same time, they also study how some of these same methods led
to the creation of toxins used by industrial processes now contaminating the soil in
their neighborhoods, or used as pesticides and fertilizers in commercial agriculture.
The teachers introduce the students both to the history of the production of chemical
toxins, and also to the use of the tools of science – scientific methods and concepts,
and a soil testing kit, for example – to ask students to learn specific chemical or
biological qualities of soil that is healthy.
Testing soil or reflecting on the benefits of local compost is not a unique
pedagogical approach; these sorts of activities are going on in schools all over the
country. However, in both of these schools, the students are engaged in their own
unique situational context as these connect to larger social, political, and economic
contexts. And, they are learning how to respond in ways that focus on protecting
the sacredness of life. They learn to engage their senses and bodies in the process
of knowing by putting their hands in the soil, smelling it, squeezing it in their
hands, observing its qualities. In the process, they learn that they cannot possibly
know everything about that handful of living. And they use diverse interdisciplinary
sources to experience more fully the deep meaning of healthy soil cultivation. In
New Hampshire, students talked with local elders who owned nearby farms belong-
ing to original white settlers in the region. They read novels chronicling the struggle
of farming communities, and wrote poetry about gardening, food, and the Earth.
Students in Detroit talked with neighbors about life in Detroit when industry was at
its height, and they used life-sized puppets to perform theatrical presentations about
the land and marshes of southeastern Michigan as it existed before colonization or
the onset of industrialization. Because there is the clear understanding that no one
form of knowing exists that can finally give us the answers, science was studied in
conjunction with art, history, geography, literature, politics, and economics. While
we recognize that not all science teachers will have this opportunity – to teach
within an interdisciplinary team – we want to endorse this approach, along with
community-based learning projects, as the best way to engage the beneficial
aspects of scientific approaches.
We have chosen these two examples deliberately. Soil is sacred. It is one of the
essential foundations of life. Beginning here is a great way for science educators to
deal with situatedness, with the local, and with the sacred nature of life itself.
Water could also be used in a similar fashion as an entry point or focus. We work
with several schools that are focusing on various rivers and watersheds in the