Paths Toward Hybridity between Equity and Field-Based Environmental Education for Novice Science Teachers

Abstract

 It has become increasingly critical that we no longer consider environmental and social justice issues separately. Well-researched examples of real-world paths toward hybridizing equity and field-based teaching in science education are rare, yet are especially important now, not only as we move towards anti-racist pedagogy, but also in response to the global pandemic and climate change. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) drives our analysis, with Structural Agency Dialectic (SAD) and Critical Theory (CT) providing additional lenses/foci to guide our data collection data and analysis. To add to research on equitable field-based environmental education and to theorize it in newer ways, we trace the thematic markers as well as discursive traces that characterized the process of hybridizing in this research intervention. We focus on structural and agentic themes that advance or constrain movement towards hybridizing in an equitable field-based environmental education (FBEE) year-long, secondary science preservice science teacher (PST) professional development program. Data analysis focused on interviews, reflective journal and field notes, so as to capture emerging tensions directly through the PSTs’ experiences, rather than program analysis. Three emergent contradictions emerged: (1) Negotiating the meaning of the term equity in theory and practice; (2) Unpacking the meaning of grit as a tool for individualism, and (3) Negotiating the meaning of resources as mediational means. This research adds to a larger movement towards fostering equitable, accessible and anti-racist field-based environmental education.