3. SATISFACCIÓN LABORAL DE LOS OCUPADOS EN EL SECTOR
3.2 DETERMINANTES DE LA SATISFACCIÓN LABORAL
Kurt: The connections between our understandings of an issue, especially in a critical manner, whereby we expose injustices both social and ecological, as well as help students understand and explore “thick descriptions,” make visible the rela- tionships and tensions that exist in any given action, situation, or condition (Bowers 2006). These situations are relationships that exist wherever and whenever social norms, cultural values, traditions, and practices not only compromise sociocultural, socioecological, and ecological communities, but also the tensions that may exist if those norms, values, and practices were to just cease to exist. An educational system that expects its students to understand not only the injustices, but also the interwoven and very complex relationships that make this a potentially “messy” world, is an educational system that can truly be liberating. This social, cultural, and ecological net needs to be understood in great detail through authentic investigation. Thomas Jefferson spoke quite frequently about his vision of education being the backbone of a democratic society. In this current society, it is not enough to teach about his- tory through the eyes of the colonizers, science through the lenses of only western
103 7 Engaging the Environment
paradigms, and literature through Eurocentric canon. An educational system that has the expectation and goal of creating a stronger democratic and diverse populace must include an environmental and science education that takes a highly nuanced, contextualized, and intersectional approach where the interconnections, relationships, and tensions between the value systems of science, western industrial culture, and local/global ecologies need to be looked at together in concert with one another. When I teach my preservice teachers about ecojustice pedagogy, I often include a phrase that I have developed in order to have students consider, explore, and interrogate: “Technology has become our ecology.” This statement is often one of disequilibrium for preservice teachers and encourages them to do a deconstructive analysis about the intersections of social, cultural, and ecological practices and mindsets in local and global contexts. Ultimately, they need to generate questions for their students to investigate around these intersectional relations in order to more fully understand the pressures and tensions around environmental conditions, as well as to be able to authentically participate in their communities.
Why is having this complex level of understanding something that I consider to be “liberating” in an educational context and especially in environmental educa- tion? In many ways, this is the difference between a short-lived “feel good” expe- rience and a more potentially tumultuous and arduous experience that has greater potential for a longer-term effect. In the process of uncovering the null curriculum, or the messages that are typically silenced, ignored, or marginalized, there can be some overwhelming feelings of sadness and despair. Thoughts and feelings of surplus powerlessness (Lerner 1986) might be present in the initial stages of uncovering injustices and practices and mindsets that produce them. However, Roth shows us how students who actively engage in their community with very challenging environmental topics thrive and deepen their understandings, as well as, feel mobilized and empowered to do this type of work in their communities. There is no doubt that the political realms of these students’ communities are con- nected to the ecological when they present their findings in a public forum to local government officials. This political experience shows students that the social, cultural, and ecological are all connected and that we should not shy away from potentially “hot button” topics. It also is an important opportunity to discuss how to engage in a dialogue that has intentions of building community rather than cre- ating polarization and divisiveness, something that is unfortunately all too com- mon in the current political landscape in the USA. When Roth describes students authentically investigating current ecological conditions and engaging in dialogue in their communities, this demonstrates a “liberatory education,” a Freirian notion of education connecting with the empowerment of marginalized groups, whereby students contribute their voices toward the raising of awareness and advocating for more balanced approaches and sustainable relationships. In doing so, students are also interacting with the tensions that cannot be ignored, whether they are eco- nomic or social pressures. This ambiguity caused by the tensions at the intersec- tions of social, cultural, and ecological conditions is the larger reality, and to be able to operate democratically, one must be fairly comfortable and certainly able to maneuver in the ambiguity of those tensions.
104 K. Love et al. As we consider and explore the strengths and weaknesses that different contexts like urban, suburban, and rural might involve for teachers and teacher educators, we need to keep a constant eye on the horizon line of a place-based (science) education. That horizon line may well be where “thick description” and community-based involvement occur. Having those horizons as the targets may move education as a whole in ways that bring about higher rates of literacy in many different content areas including science and environmental education because of their connectedness to a “real world.” As we continue in our efforts to work toward sustainability both ecologically and socially, we will need to focus our attentions on understanding relationships and tensions more clearly and how important it is to get out of the classroom and in natural and social communities.
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105 Socioscientific issues (SSI) provide situations where science teachers and students analyze complex issues associated with ethical, political, and social dilemmas, such as whether animals should be kept in zoos or whether plants should be genetically modified. While engaging in socioscientific issues, students become informed about scientific conditions and develop epistemological styles for dealing with scientific research and the consequences thereof. During a time of increasing awareness around cultural diversity, biodiversity, and ecological degradations, epistemic development is paramount for helping students evaluate how they frame their relationships with others including nonhuman species and physical environments. In this regard, social justice movements have been too limited and exclusive, with a higher priority for humankind. Social justice, as currently conceptualized in the science education literature, is seldom extended to nonhuman animals, plants, and the land. Social justice is often associated with disparities between the haves and have-nots, which is historically contrived with middle-class values, norms, and conventions. It is inherently limited to what is considered right for humans without considering how decisions convened around social justice will impact nonhumans.
When scholars say that life is sacred they rarely bestow that principle beyond the human condition. Otherwise, social justice would apply to life in all its variant forms. Killing a rat in the name of science would be just as wrong as murdering a human being. This is where ecojustice is a more encompassing paradigm which expands and enlarges social justice to consider the intertwined relationships among humans, nonhumans, and the Earth. The aim is for educational reformers, school administrators, teachers, children, and so forth, to better protect the local commu- nity and environments from possible global community threats, by framing conver- sations around the needs of diverse cultures, biodiversity, and ecosystems.
The first premise of our chapter is that ecojustice can offer a diversity of perspectives needed by stakeholders for local policy and school reform.