1. Ethan Lowenstein and John Lupinacci
Or putting place-based education at the center of the social studies. Going to describe how this is happening at scale in Michigan. And scale is key here—there are few social studies initiatives historically that have operated at scale. And fewer still now given the backgrounding of the social studies by high stakes accounibility systems.
Provocative—Not either or—can have both science and social studies and ELA and math. I do this because science is now at the center and think that if PBE is solely associated with science we are in danger of not only loosing a lot of the potential richness of PBE but of not doing the PBE we need to create good citizens and people who can address the serious social and environmental challenges we face.
Place-Based Education and the Social Studies: Eco-Democratic Reform in Action
Ethan Lowenstein and John Lupinacci
NCSS CUFA
November 19, 2014

2. In this presentation...
Introduce you to a program that is helping educators enact Place-Based Education at scale.
Explore how we might broaden how we frame democracy to be more inclusive and propose reasons why it is crucial at this point in history to do so.
Offer some reasons for why Place-Based Education is among a handful of viable instructional approaches for social studies given “the time it is on the clock of the world.”

3. The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS) is a strength-based coalition of educators from 18 schools and over 35 community-partner organizations working together to grow the visionary educational communities we need to create a just and sustainable world.

4. Place Based Education: GLSI
We are part of a 12 year funded initiative called the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative

5. GLSI Participation
And as a state we are at scale and have 5 more years of base-funding. And we are at some scale.

6. Three pillars of practice
The GLSI supports the hubs’ efforts to integrate three strategies into their work.
Place Based Education
Sustained professional development
School-community partnerships

7. Place-Based Education
Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects across the curriculum.
(David Sobel, 2005)
One-minute think-pair: What is one idea that has occurred to you this week about how you might approach ecojustice education through you academic subject(s)? And/or in the context of a particular community partnership?

8. C3 Standards-Arc of Inquiry
Developing questions and planning inquiries
Applying disciplinary concepts and tools
Evaluating sources and using evidence
Communicating conclusions & taking informed action.
PBE processes completely align with the arc of place-based inquiry. I would argue that it is among a handful of related approaches that actually aligns with all of its elements. Question asking to action. I WOULD ARGUE THAT OUR options are actually a little limited here if we take this arc of inquiry seriously. Are students really developing questions and planning inquiry. HOPE OF DETROIT EXAMPLE.

9. 9-Day Intensive PD Scope and Sequence
Summer Institute
PD Meeting 1
PD Meeting 2
PD Meeting 3
PD Meeting 4
Comm. Forum
In between each meeting:
Coaching
School-based PD
Community Partnerships
In our particular hub that looks like this. In order to enact you need a fairly comprehensive system of support

10. Community partnerships and coalition building can=teacher learning under the right conditions
PD not enough—has to be a PD that starts to build the capacity of a network to sustain and grow activity. Given the pausity of resources right now it is difficult to do this. Knowledge not lodged in individuals or organizations but in relationships plus broad vision.

11. In this presentation...
Introduce you to a program that is helping educators enact Place-Based Education at scale.
Explore how we might broaden how we frame democracy to be more inclusive and propose reasons why it is crucial at this point in history to do so.
Offer some reasons for why Place-Based Education is among a handful of viable instructional approaches for social studies given “the time it is on the clock of the world.”

12. Some important questions:
How can we use and frame the Social Studies and the C3 standards--e.g., conceptions of democracy--to change our culture to be more inclusive of diverse members of the web of life?
Why is Place-Based Education, or similar approaches, positioned to be at the center of the Social Studies? And what are the stakes if it is not?

13. “Social Studies is about understanding why people do the things they do…” (Grant, Socials Studies for the Next Generation, xii)
30 second think-pair—What kinds of ethics are implied by these ways of thinking? Who is included and who is excluded from our community? Think about the quality and character of relationships on the right. What is community? What is ethical responsibility in community? Who/what is taken into account when making ethical decisions? What is “citizenship?”

14. (Martusewicz, Edmondson, and Lupinacci, 2011, 54-55)
Language matters…
“…symbolic maps we make are like a road map to understanding the world. But, just as a road map leaves out much of the reality of the land it maps so the symbolic maps (our words and concepts) only reveal part of the world—or as Bateson puts it ‘the map is not the territory.’”
(Martusewicz, Edmondson, and Lupinacci, 2011, 54-55)
So language matters.

15. A cultural-ecological framework helps us to understand why we do what we do
Centuries-Old Cultural Discourses
Anthropocentrism
Commodification
Individualism
Ethnocentrism
Androcentrism
Mechanism
The Myth of“Progress” and “Growth”
Scientism
Is “civic education” and Social Studies Education by extension Anthropocentric? What are the implications if it is? For the survival of life on the planet and human life.

16. Is the language of civics as we currently use it anthropocentric?
Democracy δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) "rule of the people” (Wikipedia)
A republic affairs of state are a "public matter" (Latin: res publica) (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Public directly from Latin publicus "of the people; of the state; done for the state,” (Online Etymology Dictionary)
The language we use is very important. Anthropocentric language with regards to the public, democracy, and protections and responsibilities of citizens goes back millennia.

17. What would happen to our definition of democracy?
Earth democracy: recognizing the need for collective decision making by those who are most affected by the decision
Recognizing the importance of decisions that take seriously the right of other living creatures to renew themselves.
AND….WOULD WE STILL BE MEETING THE STANDARDS?
See the handout of Vandana Shiva’s Earth Democracy

18. Ecology: From the root “Oikos” meaning “home”
What if we used different language to describe community, different metaphors….
Ecology: From the root “Oikos” meaning “home”
A strong emphasis on relationships and interdependence
Disrupts the managerial model introduced mid-20th C. where science is applied to manage and control problems “out there.”
How might going from “Democratic” to “Eco-Democratic,” Or from “Democracy” to “Earth Democracy” change our thinking and behavior?
Pass out handout with Vandana Shiva’s 10 principles of Earth Democracy

19. How do we expand our universe of responsibility to all denizens of the world?
It is not quite imaginable that people will exert themselves greatly to defend creatures and places that they have dispassionately studied. It is altogether imaginable that they will greatly exert themselves to defend creatures and places that they have involved their lives in ~Wendell Berry
What does it take to develop civic responsibility, skills, knowledge and commitments using an eco-centric definition of democracy and citizenship? If we don’t do this we are done. I sometimes think that I am melodramatic. But in this case I don’t think I am. If we are unable to reframe the way we view democracy we are done. Done like “hand across throat.”

20. Great Lakes Education
Students from Neinas Elementary School in DPS on a MI Sea Grant research vessel

22. 2014 Annual Community Forum
This year the Community Forum included 12 intergenerational workshops, most of them student and parent run

25. Contact: ethan.lowenstein@emich.edu
Do you share the Coalition’s underlying vision and want to learn more about how to get involved?
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