Eleanor Abrams

Sense of place among New England commercial fishermen and organic farmers: implications for socially constructed environmental education

Given the prominence of sense of place in environmental education curricula, this paper aims to empirically examine and strengthen the conceptual understanding of sense of place. The results and implications are derived from research where five commercial fishermen and five organic farmers from the New England Seacoast region participated in a series of in‐depth phenomenological interviews and observations. This study supports the literature‐based conceptual framework that sense of place is comprised of: (1) ecological knowledge, which leads to ecological identity, (2) social knowledge, which facilitates the development of a social identity, and (3) attachment to the human and non‐human community in a place. Two broad themes that emerged from the data demonstrate how the social context of the human and non‐human community contributes to the development of one’s sense of place.

Imaginary subjects: school science, indigenous students, and knowledge–power relations

The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or ‘relevant’ to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein, we argue that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of ‘science selves’ is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children.

Talking and Doing Science: Important Elements in a Teaching-for-Understanding Approach

Publisher Summary This chapter explores how the teaching of science should take place in the context of scientific inquiry wherein students do, learn, and communicate through a specialized process and language. Students do not develop an understanding about the nature of a scientific enterprise without repeated exposure and experiences to scientific investigations. Science educators need to portray accurately to their students the scientific research practices and the resulting conclusions drawn from such research endeavors. A classroom view of science that depicts scientific knowledge as a simple extension of the data collected objectively during research is clearly misleading. An analogous thought process in education called conceptual change occurs in meaningful learning. Cognitive growth happens as students try to integrate and make sense of everyday and more formal, school-based knowledge. When these two types of knowledge are in opposition, cognitive conflict occurs. Working collaboratively with others not only enhances the understanding of science, it also fosters the practice of many of the skills, attitudes, and values that characterize science.

Chapter 12 – Talking and Doing Science: Important Elements in a Teaching-for-Understanding Approach

Publisher Summary This chapter explores how the teaching of science should take place in the context of scientific inquiry wherein students do, learn, and communicate through a specialized process and language. Students do not develop an understanding about the nature of a scientific enterprise without repeated exposure and experiences to scientific investigations. Science educators need to portray accurately to their students the scientific research practices and the resulting conclusions drawn from such research endeavors. A classroom view of science that depicts scientific knowledge as a simple extension of the data collected objectively during research is clearly misleading. An analogous thought process in education called conceptual change occurs in meaningful learning. Cognitive growth happens as students try to integrate and make sense of everyday and more formal, school-based knowledge. When these two types of knowledge are in opposition, cognitive conflict occurs. Working collaboratively with others not only enhances the understanding of science, it also fosters the practice of many of the skills, attitudes, and values that characterize science.