Studies of science learning and identity development in out-of-school settings (OST) grounded in ... more Studies of science learning and identity development in out-of-school settings (OST) grounded in sociocultural historical theory attest to its important contribution to the development of science literacy in children and adolescents. Learning science takes many forms in quality OST settings and is typically initiated and directed by the youth themselves. Through interaction with authentic, rich environments, such as gardens or science laboratories, learning in OST settings is about connecting scientific knowledge with scientific practice. OST settings also offer opportunities to engage in scientific reasoning by observing, manipulating and questioning the surroundings. Engagement in science in OST settings also support new ways of understanding and relating to science. Youth may come to see themselves as knowledgeable of science through their engagement with it and through the opportunities that emerge that make agency possible (i.e., putting science to use). Youth may, for the first time, come to see themselves as capable of doing science and, therefore, as potential insiders of science. It is this kind of identity work, which is closely tied to learning, that I explore in this chapter, as I look at learning and becoming in OST settings (see also National Research Council, 2009; Rahm, 2010).
Knowing the land, the environment and stories tied to it are ways of life for Inuit, deeply groun... more Knowing the land, the environment and stories tied to it are ways of life for Inuit, deeply grounded in and emergent from a holistic vision of the world. Naturally, stewardship of the land, water and ice are integral to ways of knowing and being Inuit. Yet, that expert knowledge is rarely valued as science and often treated as complementary to Western science. It has led to calls for new research practices and policies to overcome capacity-building as a one-way street. In this paper, we offer three examples of truly collaborative work driven by local needs identified and assumed by Inuit and their community. We begin an environmental monitoring project pursued by youth and young adults that led to the monitoring of the health of local food sources and “creation” of food through a local greenhouse project in Arviat. We then document the expanded leadership to study water quality project in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. The third case illustrates a place-based science curriculum that has evolved from stewardship projects by the Arctic Eider Society in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut. The three cases offer important educational implications for STEM Education in Inuit Nunangat with a commitment to Inuit science and decolonisation.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Jun 15, 2023
This article explores the meaning of community‐driven and owned science in the context of an Inui... more This article explores the meaning of community‐driven and owned science in the context of an Inuit‐led land‐based program, the Young Hunters Program. It is the foundational program of the Arviat Aqqiumavvik Society, situated in Nunavut, Canada, a community‐led group dedicated to researching challenges to community wellness and designing and delivering programs to help address those challenges. We show how the program emerged locally and blends Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) with tools of western science in respectful ways given its core sits within and emerges from what Inuit have always known to be true. We offer a description of six dimensions inherent in Inuit cultural practices and beliefs and foundational to the program activities and show how they open up various learning trajectories and possibilities for the involved young people to engage in community science. We then discuss in what ways the revitalization of IKS and practices led to community science projects that were locally meaningful and empowering with important implications for scientific work that mattered in light of locally experienced and devastating climate change threats. The study speaks to the importance of rebuilding relations and decolonizing knowledge systems and science practices, two key tools to Inuit self‐determination and social transformations, and essential to achieving more social justice and equity in and beyond community science.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Nov 29, 2021
Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersect... more Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersection of formal and informal science education. What learners value, engage in, and transform is understood as entangled with who they have been, think they are, and yet aim to become, calling for an intersectional lens to any analysis of learning and identity in science. Who one is and can become in science, given recognition by others as a science person, is political and a product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, to name two key dimensions, which are not additive but instead form a symbiotic relationship. Intersectionality foregrounds the structural, political, and representational of an oppressive system at work and is a lens essential to an equity- and social justice–driven conceptualization of science education at the intersection of formal and informal educational venues. Critical transdisciplinarity facilitates the unpacking of what science is and what kind of science a science person engages in, and it can move studies beyond paralyzing ideologies and meritocracies that undermine full participation in science by youth of color, for instance. Engagement with intersectionality, critical transdisciplinarity, and the political can make rightful presence a shared goal to work toward among science educators and researchers, a much-needed commitment in the informal science education field. Community-based educational spaces (CBES) challenge deficit discourses of youth and, instead, aim to build on youths’ funds of knowledge and identities through empowering practices. Identity work is approached through a grounding in practice theory, which calls for a focus on the figuring of worlds, lives, and identities. Becoming somebody in science is presented as a creative act by youth, who challenge what science is and who can become somebody in science. Actions by youth can make evident desirable identities that result in the “thickening” of their affinities with science, a process also charged by emotions. That is, intersectionality can be experienced as emotionally taxing, while agency and transformation by youth may result in positive emotions. A mobile view of learning and identity in science, captured by the notion of wayfinding, calls to attention hybridity, intersectionality, and critical transdisciplinarity. That grounding can move the study of learning and becoming in science beyond a binary vision of formal and informal science education while also making it political. A deeper commitment and engagement with social justice work in studies of learning and identity in CBES, a process well captured by the notion of rightful presence, could become a common goal to work toward in the vast field of science education, both formal and informal.
Studies of science learning and identity development in out-of-school settings (OST) grounded in ... more Studies of science learning and identity development in out-of-school settings (OST) grounded in sociocultural historical theory attest to its important contribution to the development of science literacy in children and adolescents. Learning science takes many forms in quality OST settings and is typically initiated and directed by the youth themselves. Through interaction with authentic, rich environments, such as gardens or science laboratories, learning in OST settings is about connecting scientific knowledge with scientific practice. OST settings also offer opportunities to engage in scientific reasoning by observing, manipulating and questioning the surroundings. Engagement in science in OST settings also support new ways of understanding and relating to science. Youth may come to see themselves as knowledgeable of science through their engagement with it and through the opportunities that emerge that make agency possible (i.e., putting science to use). Youth may, for the first time, come to see themselves as capable of doing science and, therefore, as potential insiders of science. It is this kind of identity work, which is closely tied to learning, that I explore in this chapter, as I look at learning and becoming in OST settings (see also National Research Council, 2009; Rahm, 2010).
Knowing the land, the environment and stories tied to it are ways of life for Inuit, deeply groun... more Knowing the land, the environment and stories tied to it are ways of life for Inuit, deeply grounded in and emergent from a holistic vision of the world. Naturally, stewardship of the land, water and ice are integral to ways of knowing and being Inuit. Yet, that expert knowledge is rarely valued as science and often treated as complementary to Western science. It has led to calls for new research practices and policies to overcome capacity-building as a one-way street. In this paper, we offer three examples of truly collaborative work driven by local needs identified and assumed by Inuit and their community. We begin an environmental monitoring project pursued by youth and young adults that led to the monitoring of the health of local food sources and “creation” of food through a local greenhouse project in Arviat. We then document the expanded leadership to study water quality project in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. The third case illustrates a place-based science curriculum that has evolved from stewardship projects by the Arctic Eider Society in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut. The three cases offer important educational implications for STEM Education in Inuit Nunangat with a commitment to Inuit science and decolonisation.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Jun 15, 2023
This article explores the meaning of community‐driven and owned science in the context of an Inui... more This article explores the meaning of community‐driven and owned science in the context of an Inuit‐led land‐based program, the Young Hunters Program. It is the foundational program of the Arviat Aqqiumavvik Society, situated in Nunavut, Canada, a community‐led group dedicated to researching challenges to community wellness and designing and delivering programs to help address those challenges. We show how the program emerged locally and blends Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) with tools of western science in respectful ways given its core sits within and emerges from what Inuit have always known to be true. We offer a description of six dimensions inherent in Inuit cultural practices and beliefs and foundational to the program activities and show how they open up various learning trajectories and possibilities for the involved young people to engage in community science. We then discuss in what ways the revitalization of IKS and practices led to community science projects that were locally meaningful and empowering with important implications for scientific work that mattered in light of locally experienced and devastating climate change threats. The study speaks to the importance of rebuilding relations and decolonizing knowledge systems and science practices, two key tools to Inuit self‐determination and social transformations, and essential to achieving more social justice and equity in and beyond community science.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Nov 29, 2021
Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersect... more Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersection of formal and informal science education. What learners value, engage in, and transform is understood as entangled with who they have been, think they are, and yet aim to become, calling for an intersectional lens to any analysis of learning and identity in science. Who one is and can become in science, given recognition by others as a science person, is political and a product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, to name two key dimensions, which are not additive but instead form a symbiotic relationship. Intersectionality foregrounds the structural, political, and representational of an oppressive system at work and is a lens essential to an equity- and social justice–driven conceptualization of science education at the intersection of formal and informal educational venues. Critical transdisciplinarity facilitates the unpacking of what science is and what kind of science a science person engages in, and it can move studies beyond paralyzing ideologies and meritocracies that undermine full participation in science by youth of color, for instance. Engagement with intersectionality, critical transdisciplinarity, and the political can make rightful presence a shared goal to work toward among science educators and researchers, a much-needed commitment in the informal science education field. Community-based educational spaces (CBES) challenge deficit discourses of youth and, instead, aim to build on youths’ funds of knowledge and identities through empowering practices. Identity work is approached through a grounding in practice theory, which calls for a focus on the figuring of worlds, lives, and identities. Becoming somebody in science is presented as a creative act by youth, who challenge what science is and who can become somebody in science. Actions by youth can make evident desirable identities that result in the “thickening” of their affinities with science, a process also charged by emotions. That is, intersectionality can be experienced as emotionally taxing, while agency and transformation by youth may result in positive emotions. A mobile view of learning and identity in science, captured by the notion of wayfinding, calls to attention hybridity, intersectionality, and critical transdisciplinarity. That grounding can move the study of learning and becoming in science beyond a binary vision of formal and informal science education while also making it political. A deeper commitment and engagement with social justice work in studies of learning and identity in CBES, a process well captured by the notion of rightful presence, could become a common goal to work toward in the vast field of science education, both formal and informal.
Putting Theory into Practice: Tools for Research in Informal Settings , 2012
Putting Theory into Practice offers a toolkit of theoretically-grounded
methodologies, methods an... more Putting Theory into Practice offers a toolkit of theoretically-grounded methodologies, methods and imaginaries showcasing ways of pursuing research of l arning for life in a vast array of settings. The book makes the case for theoretically well-grounded methods that can help us understand learning as it unfolds over time and across space, attesting fully to its messiness and complexity. The chapters that follow offer unique insights into how theory and method constitute one another and how a focus on their interplay strengthens our understanding of the role informal settings play in learning for life. The chapters also give voice to children, youth, visitors, educators and other professionals who make these settings what they are. We collectively emphasize the rich diversity among learners and educational settings, a product of our modern era of globalization and movement, which can present both challenges and rich opportunities for the current educational infrastructure and our society. As such, that toolkit is not bound to any one particular context of the informal learning infrastructure, nor is it bound to one particular content area of learning or one particular population.
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Papers by Jrene Rahm
methodologies, methods and imaginaries showcasing ways of pursuing research of l arning for life in a vast array of settings. The book makes the case for theoretically well-grounded methods that can help us understand learning as it unfolds over time and across space, attesting fully to its messiness and complexity. The chapters that follow offer unique insights into how theory and method constitute one another and how a focus on their interplay strengthens our understanding of the role informal settings play in learning for life. The chapters
also give voice to children, youth, visitors, educators and other professionals who make these settings what they are. We collectively emphasize the rich diversity among learners and educational settings, a product of our modern era of globalization and movement, which can present both challenges and rich opportunities for the current educational infrastructure and our society. As such, that toolkit is not bound to any one particular context of the informal learning infrastructure, nor is it bound to one particular content area of learning or one particular population.