Abstract
This paper offers an analysis into low-income, urban middle school children's sense of place and what and how their sense of place matters in science learning by focusing on the following questions: In what ways is students' sense of place leveraged in a science classroom? How does the content and context of science class shape how students leverage their sense of place? What learning opportunities emerge when sense of place is leveraged in class? Drawing from an ethnographic investigation into an environmental statistics class in a mid-sized public middle school, we examined sense of place events from their source, process, and outcome perspectives. Our findings are presented from two aspects of sense of place events, (1) characterizing students' sense of place by exploring sources of the sense of place events, and (2) examining processes of how students' sense of place is being leveraged in the episodes. We also examine two kinds of tensions that emerge in the class when sense of place is leveraged by students and acknowledged by the teacher: epistemological tensions (related to what the students are learning) and procedural tensions (related to how they are learning).
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Miyoun Lim is a Ph.D. candidate in science education at Teachers College Columbia University. Her dissertation explores urban children's sense of place and its implications for urban science education. She is currently working on developing an on-line teacher environmental education program using urban (New York City) ecosystems. Her research interests include teaching and learning of science in urban schools especially those with immigrant minority students living in high poverty neighborhoods, and urban environmental education – informed by critical pedagogy of place – for students and teachers.
Angela Calabrese Barton is an associate professor of science education and director of the Urban Science Education Center at Teachers College Columbia University. Her research interests focus on issues of equity and social justice in science teaching and learning in urban centers urban science education and critical/feminist perspectives on science education.
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Lim, M., Barton, A.C. Science learning and a Sense of Place in a Urban Middle School. Cult.Scie.Edu. 1, 107–142 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-005-9002-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-005-9002-9