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© Copyright 2018 Megan C. McGinty Teaching Towards Deep Ecological Understanding: Sociocultural Influences and Epistemic Navigation in Outdoor Science Education Megan C. McGinty A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Dr. Megan Bang, Chair Dr. Philip Bell Dr. Leslie Herrenkohl Dr. Jude Apple Program Authorized to Offer Degree: College of Education University of Washington Abstract Teaching Towards Deep Ecological Understanding: Sociocultural Influences and Epistemic Navigation in Outdoor Science Education Megan C. McGinty Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Megan Bang College of Education Leaning Sciences and Human Development This dissertation begins with a description of the territory that lies between sociocultural theory, education, and the natural world. It consists of three separate studies that all focus on moments of science teaching and learning that are intentionally situated outdoors. The second, third and fourth chapters are written as somewhat independent manuscripts, but they all revolve around the central concept of teaching and learning with and within complex ecological systems as influenced by nature-culture relations. The second chapter focuses on school gardens and is a case study of one garden educator working within a series of systems that influence her teaching. Culture and power are not often discussed in this context and human dominance is often taken as a given, reifying human exceptionalism. An analysis of the ethnographic data shows that normative and power- laden structures actually prevent her from sharing her expertise with students while she is teaching. I outline how those structures manifest in the garden lessons and the teacher’s moves of resistance. The third chapter investigates the role of teachers in science learning in the outdoors, positioning the natural world as an active agent in student learning. The researchers designed and implemented a curriculum that used Indigenous teaching methodologies. By adopting instructional practices that promote a relational standpoint to the natural world, instructors position children to draw upon the strengths of knowledge- in-context rather than asking them to integrate discordant epistemologies. Results suggest that instructional moves that draw attention to relationships and ascribe agency to the natural world facilitate a deeper understanding of complex systems reasoning. In the fourth chapter, the study examines the educational implications for Indigenous youth when stories are used as an epistemological tool to theorize about more-than-human beings. Youth were encouraged to observe and engage in the perspective of different rocks during a field-based Indigenous learning seminar. Using chronotopic analysis, the results showed that youth reasoned across a range of timeframes and ecological scales. This onto-epistemic flexibility may ultimately prove to be a key to encouraging agentic reasoning when teaching and learning about complex ecological systems. Keywords: Environmental education, Science education, Epistemic navigation, Indigenous pedagogies DEDICATION In memory of David Lee McGinty January 18, 1944 – March 26, 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my advisor and committee chair, Megan Bang, for agreeing to take me on as an advisee and researcher, and for her consistent mentorship and community- building. I would also like to thank Phil Bell, Leslie Herrenkohl, and Jude Apple for their schedule-wrangling in the name of serving on my reading committee, and thanks to Luke Bergmann for stepping in as the GSR. I would like to thank my fellow EMMAS project and STEAM instructors Gabe delosAngeles, Emma Elliott, Mario Guerra, Joh Howard, Ceni Myles, Charlene Nolan, Rose O’Leary, Marissa Spang, Alice Tsoodle, and especially Jeanette Bushnell and Filiberto Barajas- Lopez for the opportunity to learn alongside them. Most of all, thanks to the STEAM campers and their families, for their trust and faith in us. To the weekly Dissertation Support Group: Elaine Klein, Priya Pugh, Kerri Wingert. I cannot imagine doing this without your insight, compassion, and wisdom. Thank you to the intellectual communities and scholars at the University of Washington College of Education, the Institute for Science and Math Education, the American Indian Center of Chicago, and the United Indian Tribes Foundation. Thanks also to the school garden communities in Seattle and Bellingham, especially Cheri Bloom and Laura Plaut. I wish to thank my long-suffering family, my mother Penny, my brother Nick, and Josiette, for their support and understanding and taking on extra loads so that I could work. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Alex Brede, who hung tough and kept the home fires burning throughout the whole wild ride. And finally, I give thanks to Land. It is, therefore we are. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................x Chapter One: Sociocultural Theory, the Learning Environment, and the More-Than-Human 1 Sociocultural Theory ................................................................................................1 Ecological Education and Human Exceptionalism ..................................................4 Culture, Complex Systems, and Ecological Cognition ............................................8 Chapter 2: “So teaching kids how to grow food is pretty radical”: The Ecological Potential of Garden Education...............................................................................................................19 Introduction ............................................................................................................19 Methods..................................................................................................................31 Analysis..................................................................................................................36 Discussion ..............................................................................................................47 Implications and Conclusion..................................................................................56 Chapter 3: Talking to Cedar: Addressivity and Plant Agency in Making Knowledge ......60 Introduction ............................................................................................................60 Framework .............................................................................................................60 Design and Methods ..............................................................................................69 Data ........................................................................................................................75 Discussion ..............................................................................................................89 Conclusion .............................................................................................................91 Chapter 4: Deep Time and Rock Stories............................................................................94 Introduction ............................................................................................................94 Design and Methods ............................................................................................103 Collection and Analysis .......................................................................................109 Discussion ............................................................................................................117 Conclusion and Implications: Possible Worlds ...................................................119 Chapter 5: A Conclusion and a Call ................................................................................122 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................126 vii APPENDICES A - Plant Template Tool - Front ......................................................................................160 B - Plant Template Tool – Back ......................................................................................161 C - Rock Stories Lesson Plan...........................................................................................162 D - Rock Story Lesson Prompts.......................................................................................163 E - Discussion Moves ......................................................................................................164 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1 ...................................................................................................................... 44 Table 2 .................................................................................................................... 121 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Time spent in activities ......................................................................................... 36 2. Hierachies within a category ................................................................................. 51 3. Hierarchies across categories ...............................................................................