Page 70 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

46 M.S.R. Maulucci

For me to define the experience as “sacred,” intentionally draws on both secular
and spiritual meanings. Sacred includes a sense of wonder at the complexity and
beauty of life, and appreciation for the intricate interconnections between me, others,
my world, and the universe. Yet, coming from a Catholic faith tradition, sacred also
means holy, divine, pertaining to God; mysterious, and infinite (Hardon 2000).
Since God is revealed through creation, every tree, flower, animal, rock, star, or planet
becomes sacred in that they comprise a medium through which God communicates.
Through my belief in Divine revelation, my sense of wonder encompasses the mys-
teries and miracles of life and fills me with a deep sense of thankfulness and humility
for being but a small part of those mysteries and miracles. I am in awe.
Invoking the sacred opens up new questions for science: What are the possibili-
ties and limitations of science in shaping my understanding of the world and its
people? How might my appreciation for the sacred shape the endeavor of science?
In this way, words such as sacred and ecojustice enclose–open possibilities for new
ways of thinking about the role of science in defining and shaping our lives. They
allow us to conceive of science imbued with the sacred and immersed in a struggle
for justice that embraces ecological, not just human well-being. Yet, the implica-
tions of invoking the sacred and ecojustice perspectives in science education are not
without challenges. The moment in which I saw Jupiter’s moons was sacred to me,
but I do not know if it was sacred to my children in the same way. I did not use that
language with them or talk about Divine revelation. I know they forged connections,
but what is the nature or scope of their connections?

EcoJustice: More than Social Justice in Science Education

In a review of social justice in science education, except for a handful of scholars,
such as Angela Calabrese Barton, Alberto J. Rodriguez, and Felicia M. Moore-
Mensah, social justice is an idea that is only just beginning to gain representation
in the field (Rivera Maulucci in press). Nevertheless, early framing of social justice
in science education recognizes the ways science education and science education
research could be used as tools and contexts for challenging injustice related to
educational inequity and community and global problems. For example, Calabrese
Barton (1998, pp. 296–297) wrote:
In my work, I see the politics of poverty, its connection to race and gender, and its role in
perpetuating the vast inequities in school funding, access to knowledge, and life circum-
stances. Such inequalities illustrate to me how our society places the needs of the larger
community as secondary to individual gain, and masks the politics of distribution through
an ideology of consumerism.
We live in a world that perpetuates educational inequity, and this inequity
becomes particularly obvious in high-poverty communities where the politics of
enclosure severely limit children’s access to a better life. My work in urban public
schools has shown some of the nuances of enclosure at work. For example, one
study documented the ways a fifth grade teacher had to resist school policies and