An Ecological Framework for Science Education

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a review and critique on the curricular implementations of a variety of issues-based approaches to education including the use of Science Technology and Society (STS) and Science Technology Society and Environment (STSE) perspectives that are influencing curriculum efforts in the US, Canada and worldwide. By characterising aspects of these implementations as a form of technocentric curriculum reform, the paper goes on to describe the problematic nature of this development for science and environmental education. The paper then provides a description of an ecological (context driven) framework for science education, which references the emerging discourse around socio-scientific issues, place-based education and is further grounded in an ecological conceptions of science education that emphasize the ‘embeddedness’ of human societies and cultures (and their technologies) within place-bound communities. The model describes a range of ecological, socio-cultural and technical influences that provide a framework for educators' diverse interpretations of curriculum.