Towards an understanding of human and ecological flourishing

Various schools of thought and critical theories have been brought to bear upon the field of social justice science education, which has begun to garner some much-needed attention (e.g. Calabrese Barton & Upadhyay, 2010; Emdin, 2011; Schindel Dimick, 2012). While each contribution to this nascent field may represent a step forward—that is, towards more socially just and egalitarian educational experiences and outcomes for science learners and their teachers—attention must also be placed on understanding how the varied directions of social justice in science education research work together. The field is fragmented. Some areas of social justice research flourish, such as attending to students’ opportunities to access science courses and scientific discourses and practices, while other aspects of social justice in science education remain under-researched, under-theorized, and under-critiqued. Such discontinuity may lead science educators to struggle to define the field and to feel puzzled by a lack of coherent direction in the field. In this essay, I explore the concept of flourishing in an attempt to illustrate how it might contribute to an understanding of social justice science education’s goals and purposes.