Narratives of learning in a permacultural cooperative: some inspiring ideas for Science Education in the light of Freire's pedagogy

MARTÍN, ROCÍO BELÉN; NAHUEL PALOMBO; MARTINENCO, REBECA MARIEL; MANAVELLA, AGUSTINA MARÍA

Cultural Studies of Science Education

Springer Nature Suiza

Año: 2023 vol. 18 p. 175 - 193

1871-1502

In the last decades, initiatives and organizations have emerged around agroecological and permacultural production and also referred to notions of food sovereignty and alternative models of food production in agriculture; giving rise to the confluence of different actors and social initiatives where experiences and knowledge are shared, and new ones are created, thus revealing a high educational potential. In light of impending global catastrophes such as climate change and pressing inequalities, current approaches in science education must align with transdisciplinary social and political movements, generating new alternatives and diverse forms of sociability to open up possible futures for life on a damaged planet. From the Freirean tradition, education as a practice of freedom will find an adequate expression in a pedagogy in which trainers and learners responsibly self-configure their experiences, express their judgments, and have conditions to discover themselves as subjects of their destiny through reflective practices and methods of creation and recreation. In this framework, we will address the case of an Art and Permaculture Cooperative to analyse how communities work together to disrupt and dismantle inequities in science and education and make a more livable world. We aim to visualize forms of co-construction of science in new epistemic territories that value knowledge, relationships and diverse ecologies, contributing to a critical and decolonizing pedagogical perspective. The community has carried out its activities and interventions, respecting the characteristics of the natural ecosystem, agriculture and permanent culture; it is the only one of its kind in Argentina. The case study considers the analysis of narratives as a methodological and investigative option that allows revealing what exists in people´s subjective testimonies, which are filled with events that are valued and interpreted when they are narrated and give meaning to their experiences and their learnings. The Cooperative as a learning context has the potential to transform reality, promoting the development and strengthening of popular scientific education for liberation, which is built as an ecology of diverse knowledge, contributing to a co-construction according to the new socio-environmental challenges and concerns.INDEX: ERIHPLUS; EBSCO; SCImago; ANVUR; ADS