Composing new understandings of sustainability in the Anthropocene

Jeong, Sophia; Britton, Stacey; Haverkos, Kimberly; Kutner, Mel; Shume, Teresa; Tippins, Deborah J.

doi:10.1007/s11422-017-9829-x

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Sustainability has been at the forefront of conversations about how to best protect ecosystems, foster ecological and cultural sensitivity, and benefit rural and urban communities (Jeong et al 2018). The cultural and ecological commons are increasingly becoming vulnerable to climate change, habitat fragmentation, ocean acidity, food and water insecurity and many other escalating anthropogenic impacts (Jeong et al 2018). We are aware of these changes owing to findings across numerous fields in ecological science, resulting in a wide consensus in the scientific community.…”

Section: Sustainability As We Know Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On a geologic time-scale, modern humanity has existed for the breadth of a moment. Yet, in that brief span, we have impacted our world in numerous ways (Steffen et al 2011), with many identifying anthropogenic impact on planetary atmosphere, flora and fauna, and oceans and freshwater (Jeong et al 2018). Thus, some have recognized our current geologic epoch as the Anthropocene, a geologic time unit defined by human impact on the Earth (Caro et al 2012).…”

Section: The Anthropocene and Two Post-anthropocenes: A Path Divergingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Anthropocene as we know it: posthumanism, science education and scientific literacy as a path to sustainability

Jeong

Sherman

Tippins

2021

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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As products of the Anthropocene, the epoch of human ecological impact, models of environmental and social sustainability have been rooted in humanism, centering human agency and taking humanity as the prime reference point in understanding the world.Discourses around sustainability pose questions of how we are trying to sustain our world and our central place in it. With these questions in mind, we examine the role of science education for sustainability and as a tool for enacting societal change and interacting with the world responsibly. Science education is particularly concerned with helping learners cultivate tools and fostering scientific literacy for understanding and interacting with the world. This is key to the ability of current and future generations to meet the challenge of building and maintaining a sustainable world. Yet, these tools are rooted in anthropocentric and Western ways of understanding our relationships with and in the world, which maintains myths such as the neutrality of digital technology or linear forms of progress. We turn to posthuman perspectives to consider an alternative onto-epistemological stance that decenters human agency and foregrounds the co-constitutive and intra-active nature of the world. We argue that scientific literacy and science education for sustainability can act as channels for our species to move beyond ecological sustainability to understanding humanity's entanglement with the world. Life in all its forms, from micro to macro is about relationships with cultural and natural ecologies.Any changes in these relationships can lead to the sustaining, altering or threatening of these ecologies. In light of this recognition, we explore the implications of post-humanist thought for science education and literacy as learners seek a more sustainable world and a more harmonious place for humanity within it.

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Section: Sustainability As We Know Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Anthropocene and Two Post-anthropocenes: A Path Divergingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropocene as we know it: posthumanism, science education and scientific literacy as a path to sustainability

Jeong

Sherman

Tippins

2021

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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“…These short-sighted misunderstandings have been exacerbated by the elimination of environmental protections that were signed into law as a means to curb or slow down human impact. In the United States, these decisions-ranging from withdrawing from the Paris Agreement to attacking clean energy resources-have re-centered humans, and, more specifically, centered capitalism as the core of sustainability efforts (Jeong, Britton, Haverkos, Kutner, Shume, and Tippins 2018). These types of actions continue to accelerate what has been described as an inevitable causal chain that will alter the world in cataclysmic ways (Lovelock 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability science education: our animalistic response-ability

Bateman

Steele

Sexton

2021

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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In this paper, we craft a dialogue between "The Anthropocene as we know it: posthumanism, science education and scientific literacy as a path to sustainability," by Sophia Jeong, Brandon Sherman, and Deborah Tippins and, "The quest for sustainable futures: designing transformative spaces for youth through critical response-ability," by Shakhnoza Kayumova and Deborah Tippins. We argue for an optimistic approach to post-Anthropocene science education that acknowledges humans as the animals we are, albeit with a more sophisticated understanding of our place in the world. It is this understanding that gives us both responsibility and a response-ability to our human and non-human actors within our earthly entanglement. To do this requires reimagining science classrooms as locations of opportunity where students develop agential literacy. These classrooms provide an environment that allow students to develop their skills as sustainability engineers. We advocate for embracing indigenous ways of knowing, opening locations of possibilities through policy reform, fostering an integrated model of STEM education, and re-imagining teacher education to promote and move toward equitable science education.This manuscript is part of the special issue contemplative inquiry, wellbeing and science education, guest edited by Kenneth Tobin.

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Reorienting Science Curriculum for the Anthropocene

Fazio

2022

Science Curriculum for the Anthropocene, Volume 1

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Composing new understandings of sustainability in the Anthropocene

Cited by 9 publications

References 34 publications

The Anthropocene as we know it: posthumanism, science education and scientific literacy as a path to sustainability

The Anthropocene as we know it: posthumanism, science education and scientific literacy as a path to sustainability

Sustainability science education: our animalistic response-ability

Reorienting Science Curriculum for the Anthropocene

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