David Blades

Levinas and an Ethics for Science Education

Despite claims that STS(E) science education promotes ethical responsibility, this approach is not supported by a clear philosophy of ethics. This paper argues that the work of Emmanuel Levinas provides an ethics suitable for an STS(E) science education. His concept of the face of the Other redefines education as learning from the other, rather than about the other. Extrapolating the face of the Other to the non‐human world suggests an ethics for science education where the goal of pedagogy is peace with each other and the world through the rupture, eros and justice that arises from openness to the demands of the world. Understanding the infinite responsibility of the invocation presented by the face of the Other radically reconceptualizes science education from STS(E) towards an E‐STS curriculum of responsiveness that critically employs the said of modern science and opportunities of experience to enable the next generation of citizens to act in peace to what the world is saying.

Untying a Dreamcatcher: Coming to Understand Possibilities for Teaching Students of Aboriginal Inheritance.

Increasing the number of Aboriginal students graduating from university is a goal of many Canadian universities. Realizing this goal may present challenges to the orientation and methodology of university curricula that have been developed without consideration of the traditional epistemologies of Aboriginal peoples. In this article, three scholars in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria take up this issue by dialoguing with each other about the possibilities of incorporating Aboriginal perspectives into their courses. These conversations are woven together into the narrative form of a four-act play in which the authors caricature their personalities to highlight their initial resistances and eventual reconsiderations. As non-Aboriginal instructors from different cultural backgrounds, the authors confront issues of respect, responsibility, and (mis)representation as they struggle with the dilemmas involved in cross-cultural understanding. Through this journey they come to imagine a world where cultural differences, including the traditional epistemologies of Aboriginal peoples, present possibilities for greater understanding of each other and more authentic expressions of our humanity.

Questioning Power: Deframing the STEM Discourse

Internationally, STEM has become a slogan for organizing new discourses and practices in science education. In the form of a three-act play, we argue that STEM as social engineering orients and organizes school science education curriculum development in directions of scientific innovation and engineering that reinforce and legitimize a neoliberal hegemony of global competition and capitalist expansionism. The dialogue in the play presents an alternative conversation about the role of school science education amidst the sudden adoption of STEM. This conversation begins by examining the positivist assumption of STEM as societal salvation through the example of STEM in the invention, development, and deployment of new technologies, such as solar panels. The play then closely interrogates STEM as a curriculum orientation, shifting in the final act to possibilities for a different focus for science education curriculum development that includes interrogation and resistance to neoliberalism.

Power and Socioscientific Issues: The Pedagogy of Mire's Critique of Skin Whitening Cosmeceuticals.

Our reflection in a mirror is always more; informing the assessment of the image gazing back are the social discourses we inherit and reproduce through our interactions with others, especially chil...

Exploring The Issues of Incorporating Cultural Differences in Education: A Curriculum Journey in Playwriting

In response to a mandate to develop a more welcoming university for students, especially those of Aboriginal inheritance, we set out on a journey for ways of accommodating cultural differences in our university classrooms. Over the course of a year, we met regularly and audiotaped our conversations. By talking, transcribing, writing, and rewriting, we carried our understandings forth in a recursive manner. In our efforts to represent the ideas that arose in our conversations, the conceptual movements in our thinking, and the insights that evolved, a play took shape. In the play, three characters evolve their understandings over the course of four acts. In this article, we reflect on the conditions that produced the play; we comment on the process of writing the play; and we share the understandings, insights, and transformations that occurred in our desire to live well amidst differences.

Promoting Earth Science Teaching and Learning

Science is a fundamental underpinning for society. Earth Science, which studies the way in which the natural world works as a system, is a key element in our understanding of natural processes and is, therefore, critical to how society responds to many important issues. More specifically, Earth Science (ES) deals with the finding and sustainable use of natural resources (e.g., water, soils, energy, and minerals) that are limited, precious, and relied upon to sustain our existence on the planet. ES also addresses the prediction and remediation of natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and mass wasting. Understanding the complexity of the Earth’s systems and appreciation for how the Earth has changed over time will inform our responses to current issues of global change, such as increasing global temperatures, melting ice, sea-level changes, and extinctions.

Encouraging Citizenship in Science Education: Continuing Questions and Hopeful Possibilities

AbstractThis special issue of the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education invokes questions intended to further the discourse of citizenship in science and mathematics education, such as, How do we define citizen and democracy? Is our call for student action hypocritical? Does positioning school science through the work of Ranciere present a “straw man” argument for change? To what extent does the ghost of John Dewey animate and inform a “wild pedagogy” in science education? Challenging the view of the science and mathematics curriculum as a barrier to overcome, this article argues that possibilities for developing citizenship and critical thinking can be found and developed in existing curriculum formations and practices of school science and mathematics education.

Learning to Let Go of Sustainability

By critically engaging with current sustainability discourses and practices, this chapter strives to open space for more/different possibilities from the illusion of restoration or the seduction of neo-romanticism. Recognizing the global interconnectedness of humans and nonhumans alike by tracing (some of) the journey of a glass jar, the authors consider the roles of economic development, gender dynamics, political realities, and our relationships with the material world that may perpetuate unsustainable practices—even in the name of sustainability. This chapter thus complicates what can otherwise be dangerously simplified notion of restoration or desire for a ‘return’ to more sustainable days gone. Deconstructing the discourses of sustainability begin to reveal opportunities for other ways forward in the move from technical-rational fixes in favour of ontological approaches to change. In this chapter we examine how ontological shifts can substantially alter power relations, inviting us to recognize multiple and simultaneous possibilities for change through a hermeneutics of sustainability that strives to make space for emergent, democratic, and responsive actions when charting more equitable and ‘sustainable’ ways to live.

Foucault, Authority, and the Possibility of Curriculum Reform in Secondary School Science Education

One of the pleasures of participating in a university teacher education programme is being visited by recent graduates who have secured teaching positions. One conversation during such a visit turned to the success of the student’s practicum and the lack of opportunities to use the principles of instruction introduced in pre-service education. The student acknowledged the usefulness and importance of the philosophical approaches advocated in the programme, but admitted that once in the classroom, there were few chances to actually use them.

Time and Teacher Control in Curriculum Adoption

Canadian provinces continue to be world leaders in developing science education curricula that emphasize science literacy for all students, constructivist inquiry science teaching approaches, and authentic assessment in science education (Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, 1997). In Canada, education is the responsibility of the provinces although the national trend is toward increasing cooperation and uniformity of curriculum requirements. Curriculum change is directed by provincial ministries of education through new curriculum documents, which in British Columbia (BC) are called Integrated Resource Programs (IRPs).