Megan Bang

Cultural mosaics and mental models of nature

For much of their history, the relationship between anthropology and psychology has been well captured by Robert Frosts poem, “Mending Wall,” which ends with the ironic line, “good fences make good neighbors.” The congenial fence was that anthropology studied what people think and psychology studied how people think. Recent research, however, shows that content and process cannot be neatly segregated, because cultural differences in what people think affect how people think. To achieve a deeper understanding of the relation between process and content, research must integrate the methodological insights from both anthropology and psychology. We review previous research and describe new studies in the domain of folk biology which examine the cognitive consequences of different conceptualizations of nature and the place of humans within it. The focus is on cultural differences in framework theories (epistemological orientations) among Native Americans (Menominee) and European American children and adults living in close proximity in rural Wisconsin. Our results show that epistemological orientations affect memory organization, ecological reasoning, and the perceived role of humans in nature. This research also demonstrates that cultural differences in framework theories have implications for understanding intergroup conflict over natural resources and are relevant to efforts to improve science learning, especially among Native American children.

Desettling Expectations in Science Education

Calls for the improvement of science education in the USA continue unabated, with particular concern for the quality of learning opportunities for students from historically nondominant communities. Despite many and varied efforts, the field continues to struggle to create robust, meaningful forms of science education. We argue that ‘settled expectations’ in schooling function to (a) restrict the content and form of science valued and communicated through science education and (b) locate students, particularly those from nondominant communities, in untenable epistemological positions that work against engagement in meaningful science learning. In this article we examine two episodes with the intention of reimagining the relationship between science learning, classroom teaching, and emerging understandings of grounding concepts in scientific fields – a process we call desettling. Building from the examples, we draw out some key ways in which desettling and reimagining core relations between nature and culture can shift possibilities in learning and development, particularly for nondominant students.

Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land

In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based perspectives, and came to see land re-becoming itself. Through this recentering, we unearthed some ways in which settler colonialism quietly operates in teaching and learning environments and implicitly and explicitly undermines Indigenous agency and futurity by maintaining and reifying core dimensions of settler colonial relations to land. We describe examples in which teachers and community members explicitly re-engaged land-based perspectives in the design and implementation of a land-based environmental science education that enabled epistemological and ontological centering that significantly impacted learning, agency, and resilience for urban Indigenous youth and families. In this paper, we explore the significance of naming and the ways in which knowledge systems are mobilized in teaching and learning environments in the service of settler futurity. However, we suggest working through these layers of teaching and learning by engaging in land-based pedagogies is necessary to extend and transform the possibilities and impacts of environmental education.

Innovations in Culturally Based Science Education Through Partnerships and Community

A growing body of educational research demonstrates the need to address diverse ways of knowing in teaching and learning environments in order to improve school achievement for groups of students who have historically been placed at risk. Central to this growing body of work has been evolving conceptions and methodologies for studying cultural processes in the learning environments in which children live. To test these ideas we have developed a research partnership among the American Indian Center of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin. Our chapter will review the methodological and conceptual issues associated with these ideas and the ways in which it specifically plays out when conducting research with Indigenous communities. We will explore the possibilities that new configurations and approaches to research can expand diversity and simultaneously deepen fundamental knowledge. The chapter will explore the collaboration issues we have struggled with in the design of research studies, implementation of studies, and data collection and analysis. We also analyze methodological challenges and advances our collaboration has posed to cognitive science research. Finally, our chapter will explore the benefits to community and university partners that often are unspoken in the research enterprise.

Cultural Differences in Children’s Ecological Reasoning and Psychological Closeness to Nature: Evidence from Menominee and European American Children

AbstractIn spite of evidence for cultural variation in adult concepts of the biological world (i.e., folkbiological thought), research regarding the influence of culture on children’s concepts is mixed, and cultural influences on many aspects of early folkbiological thought remain underexplored. Previous research has shown that there are cultural differences in ecological reasoning and psychological closeness to nature between Menominee Native American and rural European American adults (e.g., Medin et al., 2006; Bang et al., 2007). In the present research we examined whether these cultural concepts are available at 5-7 years of age. We conducted structured interviews in which each child viewed several pairs of pictures of plants and non-human animals and were asked how or why the species (e.g., raspberries and strawberries) might go together. We found that Menominee children were more likely than European American children to mention ecological relations and psychological closeness to nature, and that they were also more likely to mimic the non-human species. There were no differences between the two communities in the number of children’s responses based on taxonomic and morphological relations. Implications for the design of science curricula are discussed.

Participatory Design Research and Educational Justice: Studying Learning and Relations Within Social Change Making

This special issue brings together a set of articles by scholars working to expand equitable forms of learning and teaching that contribute to a socially just democracy—or what we might call “social change making” projects—and to advance fundamental knowledge of learning and development. Many scholars have charted and enacted innovative forms of theory, method, and praxis to extend the possibilities of productively disrupting historically powered relations as part of working towards equity and forms of just democracies. Often these efforts are focused on developing effective interventions that cultivate transformative agency amonghistoricallymarginalized individuals and communities toward specific and consequential ends. To accomplish these goals, increasingly scholars are focused on the development of theories of learning that account for critical historicity, power, and relationality. This special issue aims to contribute to this scholarship by drawing attention to growing engagements in the field of education with a method that we are calling participatory design research (PDR). The works featured in this special issue are primarily from early career scholars, some in collaboration with more senior scholars, who explore the ways in which PDR is beginning to shape a newer generation of research epistemologies. These epistemologies may be essential for expanding our fundamental knowledge of learning as well as developing theory that can help create sustainable and transformative social change. Our introduction aims to chart some of the emergent contributions and future directions we think PDR may afford.

Culture in the Classroom

, which is composed of the deans of the education schools/colleges at the following universities: Harvard University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, Teachers College Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Wisconsin.

The cultural side of science communication

The main proposition of this paper is that science communication necessarily involves and includes cultural orientations. There is a substantial body of work showing that cultural differences in values and epistemological frameworks are paralleled with cultural differences reflected in artifacts and public representations. One dimension of cultural difference is the psychological distance between humans and the rest of nature. Another is perspective taking and attention to context and relationships. As an example of distance, most (Western) images of ecosystems do not include human beings, and European American discourse tends to position human beings as being apart from nature. Native American discourse, in contrast, tends to describe humans beings as a part of nature. We trace the correspondences between cultural properties of media, focusing on children’s books, and cultural differences in biological cognition. Finally, implications for both science communication and science education are outlined.

Repatriating Indigenous Technologies in an Urban Indian Community

Indigenous people are significantly underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The solution to this problem requires a more robust lens than representation or access alone. Specifically, it will require careful consideration of the ecological contexts of Indigenous school age youth, of which more than 70% live in urban communities (National Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2008). This article reports emergent design principles derived from a community-based design research project. These emergent principles focus on the conceptualization and uses of technology in science learning environments designed for urban Indigenous youth. In order to strengthen learning environments for urban Indigenous youth, it is necessary, we argue, that scholars and educators take seriously the ways in which culture mediates relationships with, conceptions of, and innovations in technology and technologically related disciplines. Recognizing these relationships will inform the subsequent implications for learning environments.

Community-Based Design Research: Learning Across Generations and Strategic Transformations of Institutional Relations Toward Axiological Innovations

Abstract The socio-ecological challenges facing communities in the 21st century are building towards a critical conjuncture of history, culture, power, and profound inequity. Scholars working in the service of social transformation and improving the wellbeing of communities are calling for creative, deliberate, and consequential interventions. Tharp & O’Donnell (this issue) call for increased engagement between Cultural-Community Psychology and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to lead this kind of call. Drawing from our experiences in community based design research, we argue for cultivating axiological innovations in research and interventions. We explore three examples including: critical historicity, inter-generational learning, and strategic transformations of institutional relations.