JGE Call for Papers: Teaching Geoscience in the Context of Culture and Place
published May 14, 2012 7:33pm The Journal of Geoscience Education (JGE) is soliciting manuscripts for a themed issue on Teaching Geoscience in the Context of Culture and Place.
Geoscience is part of human culture. Cultural worldviews influence, and render context and meaning for the ways that we study, interpret, understand, and teach about Earth features, processes, and history. We teach geoscience in and by means of real physical localities that are also places, which become imbued with intellectual meaning and emotional significance through human experience. These values constitute the sense of place: a well-characterized construct that encapsulates our individual and collective connections to our natural and cultural surroundings. Indigenous and other historically rooted groups and communities typically hold rich senses of their homeland places. Their place‐based systems of knowledge, referred to as traditional knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, or indigenous knowledge, incorporate unique and intellectually significant geoscientific observations and ideas (termed ethnogeology). Yet these groups remain underrepresented in geoscience studies and careers, possibly because they are uninspired or even put off by mainstream content and pedagogy. Place-‐based and culturally informed geoscience education—presented either in formal or free-‐choice settings—has been advocated as a way to better engage and retain indigenous and other underrepresented students, while also appealing to and enriching the senses of place of more diverse audiences. However, rigorous evaluation of these approaches has been limited.
The wider scientific, educational, and conservation communities have also become more interested in traditional knowledge over the past two decades. The integration of Western (or Euro‐American) and traditional sciences has been increasingly referenced in research literature and government reports as a model for enhanced scientific advancement, sustainable development, environmental stewardship, resource management, and multicultural literacy. Even so, the majority of professional geoscientists and educators have little understanding of the value of traditional knowledge, its cultural context, or how to approach this topic in geoscience education.
We seek to compile a focused collection of articles that highlight current thinking, models, teaching methods, and authentic assessment of approaches for integrating place‐based learning, Western and traditional knowledge systems, or multicultural issues in geoscience education.
Submission of research papers, curriculum and instruction papers, and commentaries are welcomed. Please contact the special issue associate editors listed below for more information.
Guest Associate Editor, Dr. Judy Lemus, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, jlemus@hawaii.edu
Guest Associate Editor, Dr. Jude Apple, Western Washington University, jude.apple@wwu.edu
Associate Editor, Dr. Steven Semken, Arizona State University, semken@asu.edu
Editor, Dr. Kristen St. John, James Madison University, jge@jmu.edu
The submission deadline is August 30, 2012, for anticipate issue publication in Spring-‐Summer 2013. Letters of submission should state that the manuscript is intended for this theme issue. Submissions must comply with JGE guidelines, available at http://nagt-jge.org/page/submissions.
Description
Geoscience is part of human culture. Cultural worldviews influence, and render context and meaning for the ways that we study, interpret, understand, and teach about Earth features, processes, and history. We teach geoscience in and by means of real physical localities that are also places, which become imbued with intellectual meaning and emotional significance through human experience. These values constitute the sense of place: a well-characterized construct that encapsulates our individual and collective connections to our natural and cultural surroundings. Indigenous and other historically rooted groups and communities typically hold rich senses of their homeland places. Their place‐based systems of knowledge, referred to as traditional knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, or indigenous knowledge, incorporate unique and intellectually significant geoscientific observations and ideas (termed ethnogeology). Yet these groups remain underrepresented in geoscience studies and careers, possibly because they are uninspired or even put off by mainstream content and pedagogy. Place-‐based and culturally informed geoscience education—presented either in formal or free-‐choice settings—has been advocated as a way to better engage and retain indigenous and other underrepresented students, while also appealing to and enriching the senses of place of more diverse audiences. However, rigorous evaluation of these approaches has been limited.
The wider scientific, educational, and conservation communities have also become more interested in traditional knowledge over the past two decades. The integration of Western (or Euro‐American) and traditional sciences has been increasingly referenced in research literature and government reports as a model for enhanced scientific advancement, sustainable development, environmental stewardship, resource management, and multicultural literacy. Even so, the majority of professional geoscientists and educators have little understanding of the value of traditional knowledge, its cultural context, or how to approach this topic in geoscience education.
We seek to compile a focused collection of articles that highlight current thinking, models, teaching methods, and authentic assessment of approaches for integrating place‐based learning, Western and traditional knowledge systems, or multicultural issues in geoscience education.
Submission of research papers, curriculum and instruction papers, and commentaries are welcomed. Please contact the special issue associate editors listed below for more information.
Theme Issue Editors
Guest Associate Editor, Dr. Judy Lemus, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, jlemus@hawaii.edu
Guest Associate Editor, Dr. Jude Apple, Western Washington University, jude.apple@wwu.edu
Associate Editor, Dr. Steven Semken, Arizona State University, semken@asu.edu
Editor, Dr. Kristen St. John, James Madison University, jge@jmu.edu
Submission Guidelines
The submission deadline is August 30, 2012, for anticipate issue publication in Spring-‐Summer 2013. Letters of submission should state that the manuscript is intended for this theme issue. Submissions must comply with JGE guidelines, available at http://nagt-jge.org/page/submissions.