Towards a Politicized Notion of Citizenship for Science Education: Engaging the Social Through Dissensus

Abstract:

This theoretical article draws from the political thought of Jacques Rancière to trouble some taken-for-granted conceptions of citizenship education. Rancière's notion of politics and dissensus (as opposed to consensus) can lay the groundwork for a version of citizenship that challenges what is deemed sensible, visible, who is counted in communities and on what grounds. This version of citizenship, based on politics and dissensus, disrupts the taken-for-granted social order and seeks to establish equality for those who are what Rancière calls “the part of no part.” In science, math, and technology education this means rethinking how we approach social and political issues and civic identities, where consensus seeking and nonactivist choices for students prevail. I conclude the article by outlining examples of science education research that work to “redraw the lines” of the social (the social being the stakes of the political); in particular, the Idle No More movement, which is at the forefront of both scientific and political activism in the geographic space known as Canada.     

Teaching science for the workplace? An analysis of Canadian science curriculum documents

Abstract

This article reports on the analysis of 108 science curriculum documents from the 13 Canadian provinces and territories exploring the explicit links that the science curriculum makes with the world of work. The document analysis was undertaken to examine the extent to which the contemporary Canadian provincial and territorial science curriculum documents represent objectives and goals that relate to science in the workplace. Because Canadian curriculum documents are reviewed periodically, the research was timed so that it captured the moment at which a significant number of these policy documents had been revised and released: December 2004. The article begins with a review of the nature of the knowledge or New Economy. Then previous document analysis research on science curriculum policy is discussed. The present study's findings suggest that curriculum policy makers are generally inattentive to the world of work and, in particular, to the demands of the New Economy. Implications of the research include the need to review the purposes of science education in Canada. Questions we might ask include, ‘To what extent might school science attempt to bridge the worlds of school and work?’ and ‘How might the bridge be built to this large part of life after school?’     

Scientific literacy: Charting the terrains of a multifaceted enterprise

Abstract

For over two decades, scientists and science educators have been attempting to redefine science education from the perspective of meeting the pragmatic concerns of everyday life and participation in social decisions. However, as Fensham (2002) points out, the school curriculum is still very much content‐focused, with long lists of content elements. While there have been many claims for the centrality of scientific literacy in science curriculum design, there is no empirical evidence about the ways in which different rationales—personal, social, or cultural—might lead to different curricular emphases and content elements for school science curricula. The study reported in this paper takes as its point of departure four facets of human functioning to which scientific literacy may contribute from a personal, social, and scientific disciplinary perspective: everyday coping, social decision making, working in technological industrial enterprises, and extending the frontiers of science and technology. It explores the qualities a person requires in order to function effectively in each of these facets. Contrary to much conventional wisdom and the practice of specifying lists of content as the key elements of a science curriculum, the study found that habits of mind, attitudes, and values figured more prominently than scientific content knowledge in the attributes identified by ‘societal experts’ as the most distinguishing qualities for success in their particular areas of expertise. The findings have important implications for our considerations and deliberations on the aims, content, and processes of science education.     

Being your own role model for improving self‐efficacy: An elementary teacher self‐actualizes through drama‐based science teaching

Abstract:

Many teachers in elementary schools lack school science self‐efficacy, largely because of their inexperience with the subject. This frequently leads them to avoid teaching science or to teach it in ways that compromise the development of aspects of students’ scientific literacy. This paper describes how one teacher was able to improve her school science self‐efficacy through facilitated action research. In response to becoming aware of a discrepancy between her school science practices and her fundamental educational beliefs, Lisa developed a drama‐based, integrated science unit that she judged successful in helping students to achieve relevant learning goals. This experience led Lisa and her students to feel much more positive about teaching and learning in school science. Rather than learning from another, however, “Lisa, the science teacher” learned— to a great extent—from “Lisa, the drama‐based educator.” This finding has implications for science‐phobic teachers and for facilitators of their action research.     

Casting shadows in the science classroom

Abstract

Research in mathematics and science education frequently directs one's attention to the limited content knowledge of elementary pre‐service teachers. It is believed, however, that research of this nature leads to a deficit approach to understanding more about the teaching and learning of these subjects. In addition to focusing on the knowers of school mathematics and science, there is a call to acknowledge the problematic nature of knowing (in) mathematics and science. In this paper, the metaphor of shadows is used in a critical exploration of what it means to know and how the cultures of classrooms have shaped these images of knowing. Through the voices of pre‐service teachers, this paper directs one's attention to objects that cast shadows on the learning and knowing of mathematics and science. Three such shadow‐casting objects discussed in this paper are textbooks, teachers, and gendered ideology. The paper seeks to critically illuminate the problematic nature of what it means to know (in) mathematics and science by examining the shadowy texture of unquestioned ideologies.     

Reimagining Non-Formal Science Education: A Case of Ecojustice-Oriented Citizenship Education

Abstract

 This article presents a study of youth participating in a program that engages in a form of ecojustice education, addressing social inequities, along with science-linked concepts, through a localized and culturally oriented food-based curriculum. A community-based food justice organization provides a rich space for encountering and examining the intersection of science education and citizenship education. Analyses of qualitative data indicate that youth became oriented toward activism as they accommodated new identities in experiencing the edible dynamic. This ethnographic study contributes to literature on the complexity of local and global issues, highlighting the value of place-based education toward increased social justice in society.     

Students and applied academics: Learner agency in a changing curriculum

Abstract

Student perspectives are important, yet under‐recognized, resources for/in educational reform. This paper examines student opinions and needs with respect to curriculum reform aiming to bridge school and work. Through interviews with 20 students enrolled in applied academics courses, such as Applications of Mathematics, which attempt to integrate education, work, and life activities, we explore what matters to students and what roles they play in a changing curriculum. Findings indicate that students pursue applications courses more as a way of gaining access to curriculum and to pedagogical practices that transform their views of mathematics and of themselves as learners of mathematics than as a means toward a particular career goal. Students’ educational needs complicate and push beyond Dewey's distinction between education for and through occupations. Students became active advocates for a course taught in ways that emphasized engagement, connectedness, and collaboration where learner agency was valued and respected. Student voices provide insight into how students might participate in curriculum reform and into how such curriculum shapes them.     

Studying lifeworlds of science learning: A longitudinal study of changing ideas,contexts, and personal orientations in science learning

Abstract

This article presents results from a long‐term study of science learning that began with 6 children during their Grade 5 study of the topic light and has now followed the original participants for 18 years. This report features details of the story of 1 participant, Donnie, and provides information on the approach to the larger program of research. The research takes three main thrusts: First, it studies how concepts in science, in this case, light, are developed over a lifetime of learning. Second, it studies the nature of the experience of science learning in school and now into the adult lives of participants. Third, the research seeks to understand the nature of changes in personal orientations to science learning over the years, from elementary education to adult life, a construct developed in the original case studies to describe features of each individual's approach to learning science (Shapiro, 1994a). Research insights highlight concept development and the importance of building self‐reflection opportunities into the curriculum and address the career and lifetime impacts of school‐science learning experience.     

An Emerging Decolonizing Science Education in Canada

Abstract

The article describes developments in science education since 2006 related to an agenda to decolonize the Pan-Canadian Science Framework by recognizing Indigenous knowledge as being foundational to understanding the physical world. Of particular interest is the Province of Saskatchewan's curriculum renewal that integrates Indigenous knowledge into school science, guided by continuous collaboration with Saskatchewan's Indigenous communities and with a textbook publisher to support a decolonizing, place-based, culturally responsive science instruction.     

New drivers for new science education highways

Abstract

During the second half of the twentieth century we have witnessed the emergence of new scholarly disciplines and methods of inquiry that have shaped our images of science education. While I agree with Fensham that it may be time to change drivers, we also need to think carefully about the new highways being charted by new scientists and new science educators studying learning, teaching, and the design of learning environments. In my comments, I push the argument in two directions. First, I examine who are the scientists working in science education; then I ask who are science educators. There are new disciplines, scholars, and scientists studying the structures and processes of knowledge growth and development in individuals and among communities of learners. The change in focus involves moving from what we know to how we know and why we believe it. Helping teachers and school systems to shift the focus on science instruction from what to the how and the why requires new roads (i.e., curriculum, instruction and assessment models) as well as new drivers.     

Science studies,situatedness, and instructional design in science education: A summary and critique of the promise

Abstract

This article critically examines the claim that findings from the sociology of science (or science studies) literature may be used as benchmarks in designing authentic school science curricula. First, it argues that such instructional design claims are based on erroneous understandings of the concepts of situated learning and authenticity, which result from the historically evaluative orientation of education research. Second, it considers several specific claims about the success of designed environments from the science education literature (Roth & McGinn, 1998), and contrasts those claims with an alternative way of viewing students’ work in school science. The article concludes that science education could productively consider situated actions in school science settings as interesting and authentic phenomena in their own right, apart from measuring them against professional scientific activities.     

Supporting change,but also contributing to the problem!

Abstract

In responding to Fensham's suggestion for a change of driver for developing new curricula in school science, I comment on (1) the support needed for a curriculum driven by societal experts— education of science teachers about social aspects of science and about how to agree on the content; (2) unintentional contributions to the existing problem—namely, science educators’ lack of engagement in the educational‐political interface; and (3) my own research agenda.     

STS in a time of economic change: What's love got to do with it? 1

Abstract

Although science, technology, and society (STS) has been widely accepted as part of science curriculum policy, there is little evidence that it has made much impact on classroom practice, particularly in the academic stream of secondary schools. A variety of pressures encourage strong links between school science and an academic version of science designed to prepare future scientists. In the context of structural economic changes and calls for strengthening links between science education and the workplace, I argue that supporters of STS should consider placing STS in occupational contexts in ways that would integrate academic and occupational education. Such an integration might lead to alliances with powerful sections of industry interested in challenging narrow academic versions of school science. These new contexts, though, must also encourage critical engagement with workplace issues.     

Impact of an Integrated Methods Course on Preservice Teachers’ Perspectives of Curriculum Integration and Faculty Instructors’ Professional Growth

Abstract

Many of today's educators support integrated curriculum. To prepare preservice teachers to teach an integrated curriculum in elementary schools, a methods course that covered multiple disciplines was offered to preservice teachers registered in the teacher education program of a public university in the city of New York. Through observations and reflective journals, this study investigated how this course influenced preservice teachers’ perspectives on teaching science, mathematics, and music in an integrated way. Results indicate that preservice teachers’ understandings of curriculum integration were enhanced by the course. They also demonstrated high enthusiasm for curriculum integration during their teaching practice. Faculty instructors’ professional growth in the process of the planning and teaching of this course is also highlighted.     

Exploring School Mathematics as a Source for Pedagogic Reflections in Teacher Education

Abstract

An initiative of professional development was set up with/for secondary mathematics teachers in order to offer them opportunities to engage in deep explorations of school mathematics content. This article reports on how, through these mathematical explorations, teachers did much more than develop their mathematical knowledge as they also engaged unexpectedly in rich pedagogical considerations and reflections about their teaching of mathematics (in this case, the volume of solids). These pointed to a strong connection existing between the teachers’ mathematical knowledge and their “teaching” knowledge, as developing mathematical understandings led them to developments about their teaching. This interconnection is further explored through excerpts where teachers’ teaching orientations and mathematical knowledge appear inextricably intertwined, one influencing the other in a dynamic relationship, leading to enriched comprehensions of the interplay existing between teachers’ knowledge of content and of pedagogy.     

Considering Indigenous Knowledges and Mathematics Curriculum

Abstract

Across Canada, significant program changes in school mathematics have been made that encourage teachers to consider Aboriginal perspectives. In this article, I investigate one Aboriginal teacher's approaches to integrating Indigenous knowledges and the mandated mathematics curriculum in a Blackfoot First Nation school. Using a framework that explicates Western and Indigenous mathematics, I describe two approaches involving the construction of a model house and learning from place by visiting a sacred site. By problematizing the notion of integration, I claim that developing an understanding of Indigenous and Western worldviews might offer generative possibilities for this complex endeavor.     

Exploring the Understanding and Common Use of Scientific and Everyday Knowledge and Students’ Agency in a Kenyan High School

Abstract

The understanding and applications of scientific and everyday knowledge by high school students was documented among 52 secondary students in Kenya. The study utilized a socio-cultural framework, a pre- and post-data-collecting strategy, and theme building in data analysis. Posttest data showed an increase of claims that referred to the conduct of scientific inquiry or systematic “finding out.” It appears that the content of the lecture prompted students’ to consider using scientific knowledge to solve problems in everyday life. The implications of the study point to a reconsideration of the practices of science education in Kenya and similar contexts.     

A Reexamination of Ontario's Science Curriculum: Toward a More Inclusive Multicultural Science Education?

Abstract

The rapid diversification of communities in Ontario has necessitated the provincial government to reevaluate public school curriculums and policies to make schools more inclusive and reflective of its diverse population. This article critically analyzes the content of the latest revised science curricula for Grades 1 to 10 and assesses the degree to which multiculturalism, including antiracism, principles found in provincial equity and inclusive policies are implemented. Though small progress has been made to support multicultural science education in the current compulsory science curricula, very little changes were observed in curriculum expectations, knowledge that students are required to acquire.     

Context-Aware Adaptation: A Case Study On Mathematical Notations

Abstract

In the last two decades, the World Wide Web has become the universal information source. Search engines can efficiently serve daily information needs due to the enormous redundancy of relevant resources on the web. For educational and scientific information needs, the web functions much less efficiently: Scientific publishing is built on a culture of unique reference publications, and moreover, documents abound with specialized structures such as technical nomenclature, notational conventions, references, tables, or graphs. Many of these structures are peculiar to specialized communities determined by nationality, research group membership, or adherence to a special school of thought. To keep the much-lamented “digital divide” from becoming a “cultural divide,” we have to make online material more accessible and adaptable to individual users.

In this paper, we attack this goal for the field of mathematics where knowledge is abstract, highly structured, and extraordinarily interlinked. Modern, content-based representation formats like OpenMath or content MathML allow us to capture, model, relate, and represent mathematical knowledge object, and thus, make them context-aware and machine-adaptable to the respective user contexts. Building on previous work, which can make mathematical notations adaptable, we employ user modeling techniques to make them adaptive to relieve the reader of configuration tasks. We present a comprehensive framework for adaptive notation management and evaluate it on the proof-of-concept prototype panta rhei.