Science and Society in the Classroom: Using Sociocultural Perspectives to Develop Science Education
Powered By Xquantum

Science and Society in the Classroom: Using Sociocultural Perspec ...

Read
image Next

This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.


and dislocation have become the leitmotifs of the global age” (p. 166). Finally, a recognition of the fact that the high resource consumption as a result of the “global technoscientific progress paradigm” (Carter, 2008, p. 166) begs for conversations about a sustainable future and thus sustainability issues. In addition, engaging future citizens in these conversations would be crucial as well. As Hodson (2003) argued:

What is clear is that ordinary citizens will increasingly be asked to make judgements about matters underpinned by science knowledge or technological capability, but overlaid with much wider considerations. Those without a basic understanding of the ways in which science and technology are impacted by, and impact upon, the physical and the sociopolitical environment will be effectively disempowered and susceptible to being seriously misled in exercising their rights within a democratic, technologically-dependent society. (pp. 650–651)

These conversations are beginning to gain prominence in science education and emerging conversations in science education include traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and sociocultural frameworks that are outside of science education (for example, hybridity discourse that builds on students', teachers', and researchers' existing cultural capital and funds of knowledge). These ideas focus on science for sustainability or ecological sustainable focus in science education (Barton, Koch, Contento, & Hagiwara, 2005; Paige, Lloyd, & Chartres, 2008). Sustainability science is not yet a recognized field or discipline, and “it has developed from a variety of the fields including environmental science, science and technology for sustainability, Third World development studies, economics, social and political sciences, globalization, cultural studies, and anthropology” (Carter, 2005, p. 168). Sustainability science is a transdisciplinary approach that “recognizes the limitations of traditional science and other disciplines in investigating the complexities of socioecological assemblages” (Carter, 2005, p. 169).

Kimmerer (2002) posited, “traditional ecological knowledge refers to the knowledge, practice, and belief concerning the relationship of living beings to one another and to the physical environment, which is held by