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Cultural Studies of Science Education

, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 33–43 | Cite as

Re-inhabiting place in contemporary rural communities: Moving toward a critical pedagogy of place

  • Lacey D. Huffling
  • Heidi B. Carlone
  • Aerin Benavides
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Abstract

Heather Zimmerman and Jennifer Weible’s (Cult Stud Sci Educ, 2016) use of place-based pedagogy in high school science education honors their participants’ lived experiences and the rural communities from which they come. They raise an unresolved tension in their findings: Why did the youth in their study, who clearly learned a lot about the local watershed, not feel empowered or knowledgeable enough to propose collective, action-oriented strategies to address the poor quality of the water? We use this tension as a focus point of our response, drawing on one author’s (Huffling’s) biography and David Gruenewald’s (Educ Res 32:3–12, 2003. doi: 10.3102/0013189X032004003) critical pedagogy of place to re-imagine the curriculum that Zimmerman and Weible describe. We provide strategies that align with Gruenewald’s (2003) constructs of decolonization and reinhabitation that could promote youths’ collective empowerment.

Keywords

Rural education Science education Environmental education Place-based curriculum Critical pedagogy of place 

Resumen

Heather Zimmerman y Jennifer Weible (2016) honraron las experiencias vividas de los participantes y las comunidades rurales de donde vinieron los jóvenes utilizando una pedagogía basada en el lugar en las clases de honores de educación científica en una escuela secundaria. Plantean una tensión no resuelta en sus resultados: ¿por qué los jóvenes en el estudio de investigación, que claramente aprendieron mucho sobre la cuenca local, no se sentían suficientemente facultados o con conocimiento suficiente para proponer estrategias colectivas orientadas a la acción para hacer frente a la mala calidad del agua? Utilizamos esta tensión como un punto de enfoque de nuestra respuesta, usando la biografía de un autor (de Huffling) y la pedagogía crítica de lugar de David Gruenewald (2003) para informar una re-imaginación del plan de estudios que Zimmerman y Weible describían. Proporcionamos estrategias que se alinean con construcciones de Gruenewald (2003) de descolonización y reinhabitation que podrían promover el empoderamiento colectivo de los jóvenes.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Lacey D. Huffling
    • 1
  • Heidi B. Carlone
    • 2
  • Aerin Benavides
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Teaching and LearningGeorgia Southern UniversityStatesboroUSA
  2. 2.Department of Teacher Education and Higher EducationThe University of North Carolina at GreensboroGreensboroUSA

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