Wondering in Places: Culture, Ethics, and Complexity in Early Science Education

• In Event: Attending to the Political and Ethical Dimensions of Teacher Learning

Abstract

Children learning about and navigating in socio-ecological systems (SES) to develop sustainable and just ways of living is critically consequential in the 21st century (e.g. NRC 2012). Research suggests environmental decision-making is related to cultural differences in ecosystems cognition (e.g. Medin, et al,Ross, & Cox, 2006) and construals of human-nature relationships (Bang & Marin, 2015; Atran et al., 2005). These cultural differences in human-nature relations are central to environmental decision-making, including moral and ethical frames of what socioecological actions humans should take (Medin et al, 2006; Medin & Bang, 2014). Further, this research suggests that reasoning from multiple perspectives about complex relational dynamics might better prepare the next generation for ethical engagement and just decision making.
This paper explores these issues in the context of the Learning in Places project, an NSF-funded to develop NGSS-aligned “field-based science storyline” co-designed with educators, families, and community-based organizations that aims to cultivate equitable, ethical, and culturally-based SES learning and sustainable decision making though field-based investigations in outdoor spaces. The storyline is grounded in three key practices, including: 1) histories of place, 2) “wondering walks” and 3) “should we” questions. This storyline culminated in students presenting recommendations about what we (humans) should do after field based investigations. In this paper we examine: How do students’ wonderings and understandings of complex socioecological relations manifest and develop when we design for field-based science education that foregrounds power, historicity and ethical deliberation?
We analyze designed materials, student artifacts, and video recordings of student activity in a 3rd grade classroom utilizing discourse and interaction analysis (e.g. Erickson, 2006; Goodwin, 2000/2018) to characterize students’ sensemaking and teacher practice in implementation. Our analysis sought to characterize the salient conceptual, interactional, and material learning ecologies that emerged (Barron, 2004).
We present three high-level findings. First, place specific wondering cultivates sophisticated observations and explanations from multiple interconnected perspectives - something that we routinely underestimate in young children. Second, we examine teacher practice in developing “should we” questions that can hold multiple interconnected spatial and temporal frames reflective of history, power, and possible decisions and futurities. Further, we explore the expansive roles specific should we questions (e.g. Should we remove invasive vines from trees?) in student sensemaking, deliberation and ultimately their decisions. Finally, attending to moral and ethical concerns at the human-nature boundary is facilitated by locally relevant and developmentally accessible “should we” questions. Indeed these kinds of should we questions help make visible the mundane yet critical and complex ways in which nature-culture relations are lived in everyday life from multiple axiological and epistemic perspectives.
This work suggests that both epistemic and axiological understandings of complex SES are foundational to sophisticated and ethical science engagement. Our findings build with research into the political and ethical dimensions of science education and the place of wondering within these spaces (e.g. Hadzigeorgiou, 2016), contributing to understanding how we can improve teaching and learning around complex SES to better prepare the next generation for ethical engagement with the socioecological challenges of our time.

Authors

• Jordan Darnell Sherry-Wagner, The University of Washington

• Megan Bang, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Learning Sciences

• Carrie T. Tzou, University of Washington - Bothell