Abstract
In this article we explore the places pre- and primary school (K-6) student teachers associate with their science learning experiences and how they view the relationship between these places and science. In doing so, we use ‘place’ as an analytical entry point to deepen the understanding of pre- and primary school student teachers’ relationship to science. Inspired by theories from human geography we firstly explore how the university science classroom can be conceptualised as a meeting place, where trajectories of people as well as artefacts come together, using this conceptualisation as the stepping stone for arguing the importance of the place-related narrations of science the students bring to this classroom. We thereafter analyse how a sense of place, including affective dimensions, is reflected in Swedish student teachers’ science learning narratives (collected in the form of an essay assignment where the student teachers’ reflected upon their in and out of school science learning experiences). The empirical material consists of 120 student essays. The most prominent feature of the empirical material as a whole is the abundance of affective stories about the student teachers’ experiences in natural environments, often expressing a strong sense of belonging to, and identification with, a particular place. However, the student narratives also give voice to an ambivalent valuing of the affective experiences of natural environments. Sometimes such affective experiences are strongly delineated from what the students consider actual science knowledge, on other occasions, students, in a somewhat contradictious way, stress natural environments as the authentic place for doing science, in contrast to the perceived in-authenticity of teaching science in the classroom. When student teachers explicitly discuss the classroom as a place, this was almost without exception with strong negative emotions, experiences of outsideness and alienation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aikenhead, G. (1997). Towards a First Nations cross-cultural science and technology curriculum. Science Education, 81, 217–238. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-237X(199704)81:2<217:AID-SCE6>3.0.CO;2-I.
Andersson, K., & Gullberg, A. (2014). What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower children? Cultural Studies of Science Education, 9(275), 296. doi:10.1007/s11422-012-9439-6.
Appelton, K., & Kindt, I. (2002). Begining elementary teachers’ development as teachers of science. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 13, 43–61. doi:10.1023/A:1015181809961.
Appleton, K. (2006). Science pedagogical content knowledge and elementary school teachers. In K. Appleton (Ed.), Elementary science teacher education: International perspectives on contemporary issues and practice (pp. 31–54). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Atwood, R. K., & Atwood, V. A. (1996). Preservice elementary teachers’ conceptions of the causes of seasons. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33, 553–563. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-2736(199605)33:5<553:AID-TEA6>3.0.CO;2-Q.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway. Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Barton, A. C. (2002). Urban science education studies: A commitment to equity, social justice and a sense of place. Studies in Science Education, 38, 1–37. doi:10.1080/03057260208560186.
Beilock, S. L., Gunderson, E. A., Ramirez, G., & Levine, S. C. (2010). Female teachers’ math anxiety affects girls’ math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 1860–1863. doi:10.1073/pnas.0910967107.
Bouillion, L. M., & Gomez, L. M. (2001). Connecting school and community with science learning: Real world problems and school–community partnerships as contextual scaffolds. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38, 878–898. doi:10.1002/tea.1037.
Danielsson, A. T., & Warwick, P. (2014). ‘You have to give them some science facts’ :Primary student teachers’ early negotiations of teacher identities in the intersections of discourses about science teaching and about primary teaching. Research in Science Education, 44, 289–305. doi:10.1007/s11165-013-9383-9.
Daun, Å. (2006). Sinnlighet i naturen. In E. Johansson (Ed.), Mångnatur. Friluftslov och natursyn i det mångkulturella samhället (pp. 56–59). Bromma: Naturvårdsverket.
Eiriksson, S. (1997). Preservice teachers’ perceived constraints of teaching science in the elementary classroom. Journal of Elementary Science Education, 9, 18–27. doi:10.1007/BF03173774.
Ekman, K. (2007). Herrarna i skogen. Stockholm: Bonnier.
Frykman, J., & Löfgren, O. (1979). Den kultiverade människan. Lund: Liber Läromedel.
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32, 3–12. doi:10.3102/0013189X032004003.
Harding, S. (1986). The science question in feminism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Harlen, W., & Holroyd, C. (1997). Primary teachers’ understanding of concepts of science: Impact on confidence and teaching. International Journal of Science Education, 19, 93–105. doi:10.1080/0950069970190107.
Heywood, D. S. (2005). Primary trainee teachers’ learning and teaching about light: Some pedagogic implications for initial teacher training. International Journal of Science Education, 27, 1447–1475. doi:10.1080/09500690500153741.
Hussénius, A., Andersson, K., Danielsson, A., & Gullberg, A. (2014). Ämnesinnehåll och genusmedvetenhet i samspel för en mer inkluderande naturvetenskap. Högre utbildning, 4(2), 109–125.
Kincheloe, J. L., McKinley, E., Lim, M., & Calabrese Barton, A. (2006). Forum: A conversation on “sense of place” in science learning. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1, 143–160. doi:10.1007/s11422-005-9003-8.
Lim, M., & Barton, A. C. (2006). Science learning and a sense of place in a urban middle school. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1, 107–142. doi:10.1007/s11422-005-9002-9.
Löfgren, O. (1997). Kulturarvets renässans. Landskapsupplevelse nlellan marknad och politik. RIG—Kulturhistorisk tidskrift, 80, 3–14.
Massey, D. (1994). Space, place and gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Massey, D. (2005). For space. London: Sage Publications.
Mulholland, J., & Wallace, J. (2002). Navigating boarder crossings: How primary teachers learn to teach science. Australian Science Teacher Journal, 48, 12–19.
Nature Environment Protection Agency. (2015). Retrieved June 6 from www.swedishepa.se/Enjoying-nature/The-Right-of-Public-Access
Palmer, A. (2011). “How many sums can I do?” Performative strategies and diffractive thinking as methodological tools for rethinking mathematical subjectivity. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 1, 3–18.
Relph, E. (1976). Place and placelessness. London: Pion Limited.
Sandell, K., & Öhman, J. (2010). Educational potentials of encounters with nature: Reflections from a Swedish outdoor perspective. Environmental Education Research, 16, 113–132. doi:10.1080/13504620903504065.
Scantlebury, K., Hussenius, A., Gullberg, A. Andersson, K. & Danielsson, A. (2014). Can material feminism make gender matter in 21st science education research? In Paper presented at National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.
Schmader, T., & Johns, M. (2003). Converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 440–452. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.440.
Seamon, D., & Sower, J. (2008). Place and placelessness, Edward Relph. In P. Hubbard, R. Kitchen, & G. Vallentine (Eds.), Key texts in human geography (pp. 43–51). London: Sage Publications.
Semken, S. (2005). Sense of place and place-based introductory geoscience teaching for American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduates. Journal of Geoscience Education, 53, 149–157.
Semken, S., & Butler Freeman, C. (2008). Sense of a place in the practice and assessment of place-based science teaching. Science Education, 92, 1042–1057. doi:10.1002/sce.20279.
Sharp, J., Hopkin, R., James, S., Peacock, G., Kelly, L., Davies, D., & Bowker, D. (2009). Teacher preparation and the national primary science curriculum: A twentieth-anniversary perspective. Research Papers in Education, 24, 247–263. doi:10.1080/02671520902725770.
Sible, J. C., Wilhelm, D. E., & Lederman, M. (2006). Teaching cell and molecular biology for gender equity. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 5, 227–238. doi:10.1187/cbe.05-08-0096.
Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2001). Emergent science and technology in the early years. In Paper presented at the XXIII World Congress of OMEP. Santiago Chile.
Sjøberg, S., & Schreiner, C. (2010). The ROSE project. An overview and key findings. Oslo: University of Oslo.
Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N. K. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 273–285). London: Sage Publications.
Sundberg, B., & Ottander, C. (2013). The conflict within the role: A longitudinal study of preschool student teachers’ developing competence in and attitudes towards science teaching in relation to developing a professional role. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 34(1), 80–94. doi:10.1080/10901027.2013.758540.
Szczepanski, A. (2013). Platsens betydelse för lärande och undervisning—ett utomhuspedagogiskt perspektiv. Nordic Studies in Science Education, 9, 3–17.
Thulin, S. (2011). Lärares tal och barns nyfikenhet: Kommunikation om naturvetenskapliga innehåll i förskolan. Gothenburg, Sweden: University of Gothenburg.
Trend, R. (2000). Conceptions of geological time among primary teacher trainees, with reference to their engagement with geoscience, history, and science. International Journal of Science Education, 22, 539–555. doi:10.1080/095006900289778.
van Eijck, M., & Roth, W.-M. (2010). Towards a chronotopic theory of “place” in place-based education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 5, 869–898. doi:10.1007/s11422-010-9278-2.
Warf, B., & Arias, S. (2009). Introduction: The reinsertion of space in the humanities and social sciences. In B. Warf & S. Arias (Eds.), The spatial turn: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 1–10). London: Routledge.
Watters, J. J., & Ginns, I. S. (2000). Developing motivation to teach elementary science: Effect of collaborative and authentic learning practices in preservice education. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 11, 301–321. doi:10.1023/A:1009429131064.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (dnr 2010-5156).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Lead Editor: R. Luther.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Danielsson, A.T., Andersson, K., Gullberg, A. et al. “In biology class we would just sit indoors…”: Experiences of insideness and outsideness in the places student teachers’ associate with science. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 11, 1115–1134 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9702-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9702-8