Held Between Two Fingers: Resisting Nature-Culture Divides in an Informal Science Learning Space

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing New Understandings of Learning in Mathematics and Science Education

Abstract

Contributing to a long history of resistance to settler colonialism by Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color, this piece takes up a view of relationality that encompasses the between-human, more-than-human, and place. This view reflects an ontological and epistemological shift where all socio-ecological relationships are present and attended to with reciprocity (Vossoughi et al., 2023). Further, this piece aligns itself with the belief that everyday, microacts of self-determination (re)shape dominant sociopolitical contexts (Davis et al., 2020; Kelley, 2014). With a focus on the experiences of Black and brown young people within an informal science learning environment, specifically within an activity dedicated to plant identification, this paper aims to begin to explore the ways youth resist the nature-culture divides.

Author

• Olivia Ortiz, New York University