Table Of ContentTHE
NATURAL
WORLD
AND
SCIENCE
EDUCATION
IN
THE
UNITED
STATES
AJAY SHARMA AND CORY BUXTON
The Natural World and Science Education
in the United States
Ajay Sharma • Cory Buxton
The Natural World
and Science Education
in the United States
Ajay Sharma Cory Buxton
Department of Educational University of Georgia
Theory and Practice Athens, GA, USA
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-76185-5 ISBN 978-3-319-76186-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76186-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935393
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A
cknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the many people who have helped us dur-
ing the creation of this book. First and foremost are our spouses, Venu and
Jean-Marie, who are always supportive of our passion for this work and the
long hours that it requires. Our children, Dhruv, Tanvi, Jonah, Remy, and
Lindy, remind us on a daily basis why we are committed to improving sci-
ence education in ways that will help future generations to better under-
stand the relationships between humans and the rest of the natural world.
Special thanks go to our colleagues in the Department of Educational
Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia, who continually push us
to think in new ways. A big shout-out especially to our dear friend and
colleague Mardi Schmeichel for her continuous encouragement and prod-
ding that was critical during the writing of the chapters. The initial research
for the book was made possible by a faculty research grant from the
University of Georgia. We are also grateful to the University of Georgia’s
College of Education for giving one of us (Sharma) a semester-long study
leave that enabled us to write this book with minimal distractions or
hardships.
A work of this nature inevitably builds on ideas and research of its pre-
decessors. The genesis and inspiration of research reported in this book
can be directly traced to the Environmental Literacy Project led by Charles
W. (Andy) Anderson at the Michigan State University. We also thank Andy
for giving much valuable feedback on one of the chapters in this book.
Thanks are also due to Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman at the University of
Georgia for being our go-to expert on the latest developments in ecology.
He was always ready to help and his expertise was invaluable in the
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
development of the conceptual framework we have proposed for science
education in this book. We are also grateful to our colleague Ruth Harman
for her generous and valuable comments, criticism, and advice on how to
correctly use systemic functional linguistics to do critical discourse analysis
of texts.
Special thanks are also owed to the teacher, students, and school where
much of the empirical data used in this book were collected. While Ms.
Gilmour and Little Creek Middle School are pseudonyms, the actual
teacher, students, and school were gracious and thoughtful participants,
and this book would not be possible without their willing participation.
Milana Vernikova, our editorial assistant at Palgrave Macmillan, was
patient and insightful, and her help throughout made this book a better
product. Our sincere thanks also go to the Production Editor (Arun
Prasath) and the copyeditors (Priti Debolina and R. De Guzman) for their
help in finalizing the many details that go into completing a project of this
kind. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers who gave us thoughtful
feedback and suggestions during the proposal process.
We learned a great deal during the writing of this book and hope that
it will be of some value to you, the reader. We can then work together to
better prepare our students to survive and thrive with justice and equity in
the Anthropocene Epoch.
Athens, GA, USA, 2017 Ajay Sharma
Cory Buxton
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
2 Evolving Views on the Nature of Nature 21
3 The Intended Curriculum: Locating Nature
in the Science Standards 45
4 The Intended Curriculum: Nature as Represented
in a Science Textbook 87
5 The Enacted Curriculum: Representations of Nature
in Science Teaching 121
6 The Received Curriculum: Nature as Understood
by Students 149
7 A Sustainability Science-Based Framework
for Science Education 169
Index 207
vii
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 3.1 Next Generation Science Standards 54
Fig. 3.2 Georgia Performance Standards 56
Fig. 3.3 Georgia Standards of Excellence 58
Fig. 7.1 Sustainability science-based framework for science education 187
ix
l t
ist of Ables
Table 4.1 Chapter outlines 98
Table 4.2 Clauses involving humans/social world 99
Table 4.3 Agency analysis in material process clauses 102
Table 4.4 Positive and negative references to major actors
in environmental problems and solutions 106
Table 5.1 Unit sequence 130
Table 5.2 Warm-up questions 131
Table 5.3 Examination questions 132
Table 5.4 Environmental science unit plan essential questions 133
Table 5.5 Questions in the review game 136
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
In 2007, environmental writer Bill McKibben asked climate scientist
James Hansen what the safe limit would be for carbon dioxide concentra-
tion in the atmosphere (Monastersky, 2009). Hansen took some time to
do the calculations and came back with a target figure of 350 parts per
million (ppm) that humanity should aim not to exceed if it “wishes to
preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to
which life on Earth is adapted” (Hansen et al., 2008; p. 217). That was
then, a moment in human history when one could still be confident about
the planet’s future without sounding naïve and out-of-touch. 350 ppm of
atmospheric carbon dioxide as a target figure now certainly looks like a
wishful thinking for a future that would never be. In April 2017, atmo-
spheric concentrations breached the 410 ppm threshold (Kahn, 2017).
How dangerous the current trajectory of growth in carbon dioxide emis-
sions is can be estimated by a recent report that predicts that there is now
only a 5% chance that we will be able to meet the Paris Climate Accord’s
aspirational goal to keep the global temperature rise below the widely
perceived critical tipping point of 2 degrees Celsius (Raftery, Zimmer,
Frierson, Startz, & Liu, 2017). As if the threat from runaway climate
change was not enough, the planet is being continuously buffeted by a
growing number of other grave ecological crises, such as the ongoing sixth
mass extinction and the increasing scarcity of fresh water, that have already
begun to wreak havoc on the lives of marginalized human communities as
© The Author(s) 2018 1
A. Sharma, C. Buxton, The Natural World and Science Education
in the United States, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76186-2_1
