A Life in Relation to the Broader Stroke of Education

Abstract

Beginning a worldwide conversation with this first book in the new series on Environmental Discourses in Science Education is paramount for the encroaching cultural, community and environmental turbulence. This turbulence has been described by the growing needs of populations of people worldwide who depend on fewer agricultural and natural resources and the mounting environmental challenges of climate change. Facing science education in and for turbulent times, Ken Tobin (2014) writes: “The wellbeing of citizens is at stake because of events like these occurring globally, almost every day. Science affords us hearing about and learning from such events, and inevitably knowledge of science and technology are needed to understand what is happening and for others to solve the problems” (p. 293). He goes on to say that science is a “power discourse” that emphasizes disciplinary science within school settings. According to Tobin, “It is important that science educators expand the goals of science education to include science in everyday life and afford opportunities for continuous science learning including the years after compulsory schooling” (p. 298). Indeed many people never go to school and yet possess the traditional knowledge of local places that comes from living in a community that has breathed education for thousands of years. Most people, even formally educated individuals, do not recognize when they are using the science generally learned in the schools and colleges. It is not a knee-jerk reaction to think “huh, I just used science in my life”. But for many Aboriginal, indigenous, and other peoples worldwide who use traditional knowledge and skills, cultural language and ceremonies, and rely on the place-centered narratives, what might be described as science is a way of life and cannot be separated from the natural world.