The "Socialization" and Enculturation of Ecologists in Formal and Informal Settings

Abstract

Ethnographic studies of scientists and science rarely focus on either the enculturation of scientists-in-training or field scientists (particularly biologists and their "small science" work) but instead focus on experienced scientists who conduct research in laboratory environments. This is relevant to the learning of ecology for the locales where the formal learning about ecology occurs is unlike where ecology research is conducted--laboratory sciences, such as physics and chemistry, learn about the research practices of their discipline in settings similar to the environments in which such research is actually conducted. Drawing on three years of ethnographic work examining the enculturation of ecologists, this paper examines the formal and informal settings in which ecologists learn (about) their discipline and reports on the contributions that each setting makes to learning about the conduct of field research. Often ignored informal aspects of learning about the conduct of ecology research, such as story telling in "leisure" settings, are revealed as being important to becoming enculturated into ecological field research practices.