Ecological Revelations: Recovering the Unseen

Abstract

Chet Bowers’ contributions to education are numerous and provocatively persistent. Using the title Ecological Revelations: Recovering the Unseen to frame my examination, I explore four concepts central to Bowers’ work: oikos, intelligence, language, and cultural maps. First, I reflect on the ways in which Bowers’ conceptualization of the concepts created ecological meaning and discursive relevance in education over the course of his scholarship, which spanned more than four decades. I highlight how Bowers’ development of the ideas, each on their own and collectively as a coherent whole, not only challenged assumed cultural ways of being for educators, but importantly, provided an alternative theoretical framework to make new sense of how education (re)produces culture. I examine these concepts in relation to Bowers’ critique of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), the theoretical dilemmas they raise, and the ecological questions that emerge. Finally, I inquire into how the four featured ideas, STEM, and STEM education play out in the context of a community commons. Here, additional concepts such as collaboration, innovation, renewal, and relationality expand Bowers’ theory, which, in turn, not only give rise to ecological alternatives for STEM and STEM education but for the cultural commons as well.