Ideas

Science education for civic participation

My students and I are developing a conceptual framework and a book reviewing the literature related to the intersection of science education, civic participation, and the environment. Here is a preview of ideas to be posted later in 2006.

Societies founded on the belief that citizen participation is fundamental to a vibrant democracy must address the question of how best to prepare their members to take part in civic life and decision-making. Because many of the problems societies face focus on the environment, food security, and other issues in which science plays a key role, science education is integral to preparing citizens for civic life. In fact, experiential and community-based science education can enhance and complement other approaches to education for civic participation (e.g., civics classes, volunteer work). Such science education allows us to situate learning in local and global problems and in spaces that have meaning to a community, and thus engender interest and even passion among youth and older citizens.

Urban green spaces, community, and youth education

From the vantage point of Cornell University in rural, upstate New York, large cities can seem like a mass of concrete with no possibility for interaction with nature. We wonder how young people living in such urban environments can appreciate natural history and grow to support conservation?

I think that we can learn from the people who create community-designed green spaces in cities, i.e., people who have taken over vacant lots and similar abandoned sites and created spaces not only for growing food, but also for displaying folk art such as sculptures and tile mosaics, talking with neighbors while relaxing in a casita or on a bench, and enjoying concerts and religious and community celebrations. I have visited gardens from Philadelphia to Sacramento, Toronto to Houston, Paris to Soweto. Regardless of where I go and where the gardeners are originally from, I hear a similar story. These are sites where people recover from personal trauma and community conflict and grow fresh vegetables to give to the less fortunate, and where anyone is welcome to observe the beauty, smell and taste the fruits, and listen to the inspirational stories of the gardeners.

Ecologists and conservationists increasingly incorporate the social or "human dimension" into their work. Urban community gardeners inspire us with how they have created green spaces that incorporate this human dimension. These are sites where youth and adults can learn about nature within the context of positive human endeavor.

What is global/local?

Urban community gardens in the US bring together ethnically diverse immigrants and Americans to grow and share a diversity of plants from around the world and to participate in building vital, democratic communities. Agricultural biodiversity research teams at universities and research stations bring together scientists from rich and developing countries to help solve environmental, food security, and related problems. Whereas we are accustomed to contrasting the local and the global, these distinctions become increasingly tenuous and perhaps not particularly useful in such settings. What kind of paradigm can we envision to replace this dichotomy and to better describe the spaces in which agriculture and other human activities increasingly take place?