What to Eat Here and Now: Contextualization of Scientific Argumentation from a Place-Based Perspective

Abstract

This chapter discusses the enactment of an argumentation sequence about diets in the local context of Galicia, Northwest Spain. Contextualization and place-based science learning offer a framework for the creation of meaningful learning environments, through the use of local issues. These environments hold the potential to integrate scientific practices with the understanding of place and culture as part of a social system while empowering students to participate in democratic processes. Chinn (Developing teachers’ place and culture-based pedagogical content knowledge and agency. In: Fraser B, Tobin K, McRobbie C (eds) Second international handbook of science education, Springer, Dordrecht, pp 323–334, 2012) suggests three reasons for supporting an explicitly place-based approach in science teacher education: to address scientific literacy, to promote equity and social justice, and to support sustainability. From these, our work focuses on the interactions between scientific literacy, in particular the practice of argumentation, and sustainability. A place-based approach is particularly suited to address sustainability, enabling the identification of ways in which local people can contribute toward a sustainable Earth. While there has been substantial theoretical development of the conceptualization of place-based design, more classroom-based studies are needed to generate evidence on how to best support novice teachers to engage in contextualizing their teaching. Our study intends to address this gap. The research objective is to examine how preservice teachers frame an argumentation task with either place-based contextualization or global approach. The findings show that the participants framed the dimensions related to diets along a continuum from locally place-based (Galicia) to regionally place-based (Southern Europe) to a global perspective. Two dimensions, economy and cultural-personal were characterized rather as locally place-based approach and ethics as regionally place-based approach, while nutrition and, more strongly, ecology were framed with a global approach. A relevant finding is the acknowledgment by participants of tensions and conflicts between global, local, and personal interests, recognizing that solutions to socio-scientific issues may not satisfy every interest. Implications for education for sustainability, in decisions about diet that depend largely on personal (rather than institutional) responsibility and agency, are discussed.