Describes a model for cultural ecological analysis and a pedagogy of responsibility for teachers, teacher educators, and scholars with its theory and classroom practices to help develop citizens who are prepared to support and achieve diverse, democratic, and sustainable societies. Readers are asked to consider curricular strategies to bring these issues to life in their own classrooms across disciplines to examine the larger ideological, social, historical, and political contexts of the crises humans and the planet we inhabit are facing.

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Purposes of Education in an Age of Ecological Crises and Worldwide Insecurities;

Chapter 2: Rethinking Diversity and Democracy for Sustainable Communities;

Chapter 3: Cultural Foundations of the Crisis: A Cultural/Ecological Analysis;

Chapter 4: Learning Anthropocentrism: An EcoJustice Approach to Human Supremacy and Education;

Chapter 5: Learning Androcentrism: An EcoJustice Approach to Gender and Education;

 

Chapter 6: Learning our Place in the Social Hierarchy: An EcoJustice Approach to Class Inequality and Impoverishment;

Chapter 7: Learning Racism: An EcoJustice Approach to Racial Inequality, co-authored by Gary Schnakenberg;

Chapter 8: Learning about Globalization: Education, Enclosures, and Resistance;

Chapter 9: Learning from Indigenous Communities;

Chapter 10: Teaching for the Commons: Educating for Diverse, Democratic, and Sustainable Communities

See Sustainable principled procedures

 

If you have wondered why it has become so popular for people to reject scientific ideas and the benefits they provide, then this groundbreaking and fascinating book provides insight.

Shawn Otto investigaes and describes the rises and falls of science over the centuries and more importantly, for us, the decline of fact based scientific reasoning the last few decades.

Shawn describes how many Americans have become antiscience. More importantly among them are politicians, business owners, investors, industrial leaders, journalists, and scientists themselves.

His careful research and insightful descriptions to counter misconceptions on: radiation, GMO's, vaccinations, climate, and much more can help us understand how people's misconceptions and fears can be exploited to manipulate them and lead them to deny good science.

Science, which is necessary to know how to use facts in a scientific manner to make better decisions than decisions made based on emotions and nonsense.

Decisions that are based on reproducible verifiable facts and scientific reasoning; that are communicated in a manner to help people overcome their fears, created with misconceptions, and replace them with sound, fact based, scientifically reasoned explanations in a manner they can understand and be able to confidently accept and act on repeatedly for theirs and others benefits.

The author describes how this might be achieved so we might again have greater confidence in using science to make decisions that will benefit our children and grandchildren and sustain a habitable Earth.

 

Behave moves from the discussion of single events, genetic, past experience, parenting, ... to a more comprehensive explanation of human behavior. Supported by recent research from many areas: genetics, neuroscience, brain, chemistry, and biology, Robert Sapolsky explores: How much free will we have to make decisions? How is it we can we make very good decisions at times and very bad decisions at times?

His explanations are intricate. We don't just accept or reject a behavior. Like violence, we reject in certain situations and embrace in others. His explanations go beyond simple explanations to consider behaviors as having multiple levels of causality embeded in multiple areas of our brain that reference past and present experiences.

Robert summarizes some main ideas in this TED talk

Suggested for those that want to review or explore the big ideas of how science literacy can be facilitated in K-6. It is right on about how science and school instruction can motivate and meet the needs of students through real world exploration. It is short on examples on how those important ideas can be implemented in planning and in the classroom.

Suggested for those that want to focus on inquiry science. The following questions are explored: What is science? Why teach science? What is the nature of scientific knowledge? How do scientists construct knowledge? How do people develop effective reasoning patterns? What teaching methods best facilitate scientific knowledge acquisition?

 

 

Suggested for those who don't believe they can learn science or science is too complicated for most students. The authors argue the main problem with science education in the United States is - it lacks substance and consequently is of little value to students. Their solution - science needs to be comprehensive enough to create productive learning. The first chapters present a convincing argument of this philosophical idea and later chapters include instructional dialog that demonstrates how ideas of Einstein's Relativity Theory can be understood by all.

 

 

Suggested to read aloud to fifth grade and up to discuss what is science, how do people use it, what do students need to know and do to understand and use it, and how likely is the future described in the the book?

 

Support for professional reflection on the text - focus topics and ideas