Environmental education in action: a discursive approach to curriculum design

Iosif

2015

TXT

Self Cite

Abstract: The formal school system has been deemed to be essential in helping build the necessary knowledge and attitudes needed to promote environmental literacy. However, in a reality regulated by inexact educational policies and strong socioeconomical inequalities, any attempt to empower those living in marginalized conditions to care for their environment-on both its natural and social dimensions-can be seriously compromised. The present ethnographic case study in a science classroom in a Brazilian public school describes and articulates how the use of media literacy-based instructional strategies can inform teachers and students' critical classroom practices towards ecologizing the performance of curricula.Keywords: popular media literacy; ecoliteracy; environmental; and science education; ethnographic case study; discourse analysis; global emancipating citizenship.Resumo: O sistema de educação formal é considerado essencial para o desenvolvimento de uma alfabetização ecológica. Entretanto, em uma realidade regulada por políticas educacionais inexatas e fortes desigualdades sócio-econômicas, qualquer tentativa de incentivar aqueles vivendo na marginalidade para que cuidem do seu ambiente - seja ele natural ou social - está seriamentecomprometida. O presente estudo etnográfico de caso em uma sala de aula de ciências em uma escola pública no Brasil visa descrever e articular como o uso de estratégias baseadas em novas tecnologias de mídia pode facilitar as práticas pedagógicas de professores e alunos de modo a mediar uma implementação mais ecológica dos atuais currículos escolares.

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media and environmental literacy : making school relevant

Iosif

2015

TXT

Self Cite

“…These patterns can be codified as interpretive repertoires, which constitute evidence for basic assumptions that support a way of talking about a specific phenomenon and a particular rhetorical stance. Roth has used this form of analysis in a number of studies that examined people's use of specific interpretive repertories in a variety of contexts including curriculum development in environmental education (Reis and Roth 2007) and high school physics students (Roth and Lucas 1997). Zeyer and Roth build on Wetherell and Potter's (1988) research on discourse analysis of the social construction of ''race'' in New Zealand and Gilbert and Mulkay's (1984) study of scientists' talk about research.…”

Section: Understanding Interpretive Repertoiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpretive repertoires as mirrors on society and as tools for action: reflections on Zeyer and Roth’s A mirror of society

Milne

2009

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

I respond to Zeyer and Roth's (Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2009) paper on their use of interpretive repertoire analysis to explicate Swiss middle school students' dialogic responses to environmental issues. I focus on the strategy of interpretive repertoire analysis, making sense of the stance Zeyer and Roth take with this analysis by synthesizing their argument and comparing their analysis with other researchers that have also used this analytic tool. Interpretive repertoires are discourse resources, including mores, tropes, and metaphors that can be evoked by speakers in support of a tenuous claim. So interpretive repertoires have rhetorical character and function. Interpretive repertoire analysis requires looking for patterns in the contradictions in the speech of a collective of participants that can be codified as interpretive repertoires. Interpretive repertoires provide insight into macro-structures that frame, and are used to justify participants' behavior. My response to Zeyer and Roth's argument might also be thought to be contradictory but I think defensible. In this paper, I outline why I am excited by the possibilities I can image for this type of analysis in areas of science education research. However, I also felt the need to identify possible limitations of Zeyer and Roth's exclusive focus on environmental issues to the neglect of other issues, such as those associated with gender, embedded in participants' discourse. I argue that a critical and historical focus, in conjunction with interpretive repertoire analysis, offer a rich strategy for analysis in science education research, especially in the study of macrostructures, such as gender, race, identity and power.

“…Existing science education studies have utilized a discursive psychological orientation and discourse analysis to identify interpretative repertoires in different contexts, for instance, investigating science students' discourse of ontology, epistemology and sociology of scientific knowledge (Roth and Lucas 1997), students' talk about physics concepts such as rotational motion (Roth et al 2001), articulating environmental education designers' discourse about why and how they design environmental education (Reis and Roth 2007), the interactive production of scientific identities (Lee and Roth 2004), and producing conceptual change interviews (Roth 2008). Little is known, however, about the interpretative repertoires teachers use in the teaching of science; and even less is known about how teachers introduce or promote opportunities for participating in internships in scientific laboratories.…”

Section: Discursive Psychology and Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially these comments are from the teacher-Elizabeth who is an experienced teacher exhibits proficient understanding of and about science. The emotive repertoire produced in a way is hardly challenged, as the nature of the people's feelings and emotions is personal and so barely questioned by others (Reis and Roth 2007). Furthermore, teachers who are enthusiastic and interested, and who speak of the beauty of scientific understanding instill in their students some of those same attitudes (National Research Council 1996).…”

Section: Fun and Enthusiasm In Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Teacher Discourse that Introduces Real Science Activities to High School Students

Hsu

Roth

2008

Res Sci Educ

Most academic science educators encourage teachers to provide their students with access to more authentic science activities. What can and do teachers say to increase students' interests in participating in opportunities to do real science? What are the discursive resources they draw on to introduce authentic science to students? The purpose of this ethnographic and discourse-analytic study is to investigate the ways in which the activities of scientists are discursively presented to high school students in a biology/career preparation course. Data sources were collected by means of observation, field notes, interviews, and videotaped lessons in an eleventh-grade biology/career preparation course. Drawing on discourse analysis, we investigate the discursive resources-or, more specifically and technically, the interpretative repertoires-teachers used to explain and promote opportunities to engage students in real science activities. Our analysis identifies and characterizes six types of interpretative repertoires: specialized, a-stereotypical, relevant, empirical, emotive, and rare-opportunity. To better understand the "big picture" of how these discursive resources are drawn on in the classroom, we also report on the frequencies of the repertoires in the discourse and the ways in which repertoires changed in the course of teacher-student interactions. The findings of this case study offer teachers and researchers with a better understanding of how specific forms of discourse-i.e., the repertoires-can serve as resources to enhance teacher-introduction of authentic science to students and provide students a bridge between school and authentic science.