My Place in Puget Sound: Exploring the Intersection of Ocean Science, Personal Values, and Personally Relevant Environmental Action

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Disrupting the Dominant Paradigm: Science Learning as Identity Formation, Community Action, and Transformation Toward a More Socially and Environmentally Just World

Abstract

Objectives
Research has shown that K-12 students often picture the environment as a place where animals and plants live, but do not include humans as part of the environment (Shephardson, et al., 2007) and do not hold deep understandings of how they are connected to their environment (Tsurusaki & Anderson, 2010). A challenge to teaching students about their connections to the environment is avoiding environmental burnout. Literature in place-based education argues that burdening students with overwhelming news about environmental problems will actually cause students to disconnect from their environments (Sobel, 1996). This paper reports on findings from one curriculum effort, My Place in Puget Sound, that takes a social justice perspective in connecting students to their environments by exploring the intersection between science, personal values, environmental messaging, and community-based action.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
When students’ funds of knowledge and everyday practices are leveraged, they have more meaningful learning experiences (Calabrese Barton and Tan, 2009) and are empowered take action in their own lives (Tsurusaki et al., under revision). Gruenwald’s (2003) critical pedagogy of place asserts that “People must be challenged to reflect on their own concrete situationality in a way that explores the complex interrelationships with the others and with the world of nature, and the responsibility to conserve and restore our shared environments for future generations” (p. 6). We draw on these perspectives to examine how students’ sense of place (Lim & Barton, 2006) influence how they learn and are empowered to take action towards environmental conservation.

Methods
This paper will present a case study of one, urban, public high school class where the curriculum was enacted. The goal of the curriculum is to develop strategies to empower students to critically assess available information to make decisions that are informed by science but also take into consideration their cultural practices and values. Data include field notes, pre/post attitudinal and content-based surveys, and student artifacts.

Results
Analyses of pre/post surveys and student artifacts indicate that students gained an understanding of the connection between their actions and the health of Puget Sound and strongly demonstrated a sense of personal relevance of the curriculum to their lives. There was also a significant increase in students’ sense of responsibility to work for the health of the oceans and coastal areas. While some of this may be due to the curriculum itself, we also investigate how the teacher positioned students in ways that empowered them to take actions that made sense for their lives. She continually asked them to think about their own values, consider scientific findings against those values, and make informed decisions that fit within the constraints of their lived realities.

Significance
This research provides both an example of curriculum and strategies for teaching students in ways that help them connect to their environments to empower them to take action. We demonstrate the importance of putting the context of students’ lives (i.e., values, financial circumstances, location) and taking local, personally relevant action as central to curriculum and teaching about the environment.

Authors

• Blakely K. Tsurusaki, University of Washington

• Carrie T. Tzou, University of Washington - Bothell