Page 72 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

48 M.S.R. Maulucci

with youth “to address ways in which aspects of science knowledge and methods
can be used explicitly to protect life,” how do we define life? Do we stop short of
defining life as including the unborn? When my son is suffering the effects of mos-
quito bites and asks me, “Why do mosquitoes exist?” do I disrupt his human-centered
query and explain the web of life? Do I talk about how even mosquitoes are sacred?
Do I draw on Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and the mixed legacy of using the
pesticide DDT as an example of where human-centered thinking brings us? With
my son? All of the above. With children in public schools? I might leave out men-
tion of mosquitoes as sacred. Is the word, sacred, necessary? Is language too messy
and loaded with baggage? Can actions speak the words we dare not say? Is the
concept of a sense of wonder an adequate substitution? Can my joy in the “discovery”
of Jupiter’s moons, my wonder and awe at the universe, my affinity for the spirit
within the tree, the rock, the flower be enough to open children to the possibility of
feeling deeply connected to their world, their responsibility to cherish life in all its
forms, and their moral and civic duty to do less ecological harm to the systems that
sustain life?

Conclusion

Enclosure has tremendous ramifications for public education. Education is highly
commodified and poised to become more so. Multinational corporations have a
large stake in the texts, curricula, software, supplies, resources, and facilities uti-
lized by schools. An ecojustice perspective interrogates current moves to privatize
and standardize education, particularly in high-poverty communities and questions
the ways such moves may serve to de-emphasize place, erase indigenous knowl-
edge, and perpetuate inequity. For schools to promote ecojustice, educators will
need to develop ways to open up the practices, policies, beliefs, and language of
teaching, uncouple them from the economic engine, and begin to reimagine and
revitalize their schools and communities. Revitalizing may involve shedding prac-
tices that contribute to environmental degradation and restoring indigenous or com-
munal ways of living where appropriate (Brandt 2004). Revitalizing may also
require the creation of new ways of living in multiethnic communities that bring
together peoples from many different places with diverse perspectives and values.
We will also need to revitalize our languages, to excavate the root metaphors that
underlie the ways we relate to ourselves, others, and the environment.
Science taught without a sense of wonder is limited to a body of knowledge and
practices without a heart and soul. When science draws on a sense of the sacred, it
embodies a fundamental understanding of the beauty and complexity of life that our
limited senses, even with the help of modern technological advances, can only begin
to grasp. For some, invoking the sacred may connect to spiritual beliefs and values.
Furthermore, the sacred does not rely on the consequences of an action to determine
worth, value, or morality. Ecojustice and place-based pedagogies have the potential
to play a crucial role in bringing people together across the many limitations and