Troubling Troubled Waters in Elementary Science Education: Politics, Ethics & Black Children’s Conceptions of Water [Justice] in the Era of Flint

Abstract

The study of water as a K–12 science idea often divorces its properties from its deeply politicized history as a resource that has been limited, compromised, and intentionally withheld from nondominant communities. Although a robust body of scholarship has aptly critiqued decontextualized and depoliticized pedagogies and called for critical science-learning environments designed through the lens of equity, historicity, and power, more insight is needed into how children develop in relation to these design imperatives and within sociopolitical contexts where environmental issues pose a direct threat. We report select findings from a 2-year ethnographic project that investigated Black student agency in a school with a place-based design. Specifically, we hone in on the themes of water and water justice, which inspired the development of a socio-scientific unit enacted in two 4th-/5th-grade classrooms. This unit coincided with the initial spike in public awareness around the still unresolved water crisis in Flint, MI. For this article, we situate the “Flint” module as an illustrative case of justice-centered science pedagogy and analyze Black students’ disciplinary, affective, and sociopolitical understandings. We found that children’s meaning-making shifted from individualized accounts to critical, systemic explanations of environmental justice issues. The saliency of children's affective understandings throughout the unit was also captured. We expound on these findings and conclude with a discussion of implications, particularly as it relates to the ethics and politics of developing critical scientific capacity in young children to confront lived environmental human rights issues.

Notes

1 Riverview is a pseudonym. Aside from Flint, MI, names in this article have been replaced with pseudonyms.

2 Black and African American are used interchangeably in this analysis due to their synonymous use in our research context. We acknowledge that for many, these terms are not used interchangeably for personal, cultural, and/or political reasons.

3 Stated during an end of the year interview. Iris is an African American 5th-grader at Mission City School in the city of Riverview.

4 Also with a majority-Black student population.

5 For days present at MCS. On a typical week, Natalie spent 3 days at the school.

6 Children self-identified as Black. Two child participants also identified as mixed race.

7 Total includes time spent on field trips and participating in school-wide events.

8 It is customary at MCS to designate an overarching question for exploration throughout the year. Teachers were asked to introduce the question, display it prominently in the classroom and consider it as they developed curricula.

9 For the larger project.

10 MCS children had discussed forms of protest during the Civil Rights Movement. In 2015, Tariq and a small group from the school travelled to Alabama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by a grant from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Notes on contributors

Natalie R. Davis

Natalie R. Davis, PhD is an Assistant Professor, Department of Early Childhood & Elementary Education, Georgia State University.

Janelle Schaeffer

Ms. Janelle Schaeffer is a 4th Grade Teacher, Redford Union School District.