Glen S. Aikenhead

Integrating Western and Aboriginal Sciences: Cross-Cultural Science Teaching

The article addresses issues of social power and privilege experienced by Aboriginal students in science classrooms. First, I present a rationale for a cross-cultural science education dedicated to all students making personal meaning out of their science classrooms. Then I describe a practical research and development project, “Rekindling Traditions: Cross-Cultural Science & Technology Units,” that modestly illustrates cross-cultural science teaching for years 6–11, in which Western and Aboriginal sciences are integrated. This integration is discussed in terms of the “Rekindling Traditions” units, including the assessment of students.

Students' ease in crossing cultural borders into school science

The purpose of this article is to fine-tune a grounded-theory scheme originally proposed in this journal by Costa (1995). She categorized students according to the ease with which they succeed in school science; an ease related to the similarity between their life-world culture and

Transcending Cultural Borders: implications for science teaching

Abstract The current development towards ‘science for all’ in all parts of the globe necessitates that consideration be given to how pupils move between their everyday life‐world and the world of school science, how pupils deal with cognitive conflicts between those two worlds, and what this means for effective teaching of science. This paper reviews a new cognitive explanation‐‐collateral learning theory‐‐for how pupils cope with disparate worldviews mediated by transcending cultural borders between their everyday culture and the culture of science. The assistance that most pupils receive when they attempt to negotiate these cultural borders will influence their success at science. A new pedagogy is proposed in which teachers assume a role of culture broker in the classroom to achieve culturally sensitive curriculum and assessment.

Cross‐cultural science teaching: Rekindling traditions for aboriginal students

The project Rekindling Traditions illustrates one modest way of addressing the under-representation of Aboriginal people in careers related to science, a situation that arises from a colonial type of science education. Unless teaching materials provide a meaningful context to Aboriginal students (defined by their local community), and unless Aboriginal science co-exists with Western science in the science classroom, many Aboriginal students find the science curriculum inaccessible. In a postcolonial science education, such as the Rekindling Traditions project, Western science content is integrated into the local community’s Aboriginal science. Aboriginal content is not a token addition but an asset in the science classroom. The study’s research and development (R&D) methodology is described. A team of six science teachers from across northern Saskatchewan collaborated with the author to develop teaching units and to improve their culture brokering skills with students (Grade 6 to Grade 11) to help students cross the cultural border between their community’s Aboriginal culture and the culture of Western science.Sommaire exécutifLe projet intitulé Rekindling Traditions: Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Units (« Raviver les traditions: unités d’apprentissage multiculturelles en sciences et technologies ») est l’un des modestes instruments dont nous pouvons nous servir pour contrer la sous-représentation des populations autochtones dans les carrières qui se rattachent aux sciences, situation héritée d’une didactique des sciences de type colonialiste. En effet, si le matériel pédagogique disponible ne fournit pas aux étudiants et aux étudiantes autochtones des contextes significatifs pour eux (significatifs selon des critères définis par leur propre communauté), et si on ne fait pas en sorte que les sciences autochtones coexistent avec les sciences occidentales dans les cours de sciences à l’école, de nombreux étudiants et étudiantes autochtones risquent de trouver le curriculum scientifique inaccessible. Dans un système d’éducation scientifique post colonial, comme dans le projet Rekindling Traditions, les contenus scientifiques occidentaux sont intégrés aux contenus scientifiques autochtones de la communauté. Les contenus autochtones ne sont pas un simple ajout symbolique mais constituent un véritable atout dans la salle de classe. Par ailleurs, ces contenus sont à distinguer des connaissances écologiques traditionnelles (« traditional ecological knowledge » ou TEK), qui dénotent parfois des sous-entendus colonialistes dans l’utilisation qu’on en fait au Canada.La méthodologie appliquée à cette étude est un modèle d’enquête qui caractérise la recherche et le développement, méthodologie naissante en didactique des sciences. Dans une étude de recherche et de développement, le déroulement de la recherche et la cueillette des données visent directement à améliorer le produit de l’étude ou à promouvoir des pratiques liées à ce produit. Cet objectif se rapproche de l’évaluation formative. Une équipe de recherche et de développement formée de six enseignants et enseignantes de sciences provenant du nord de la Saskatchewan ont collaboré avec l’auteur afin de réaliser des unités d’apprentissage et d’améliorer leurs compétences multiculturelles auprès des élèves (de la sixième à la onzième année) afin de les aider à franchir la frontière culturelle entre la culture autochtone de leur communauté et la culture scientifique occidentale. Ces unités pédagogiques sont disponibles sur le site Web du projet au http://capes.usask.ca/ccstu.Nous prévoyons que l’enseignant ou l’enseignante choisira une unité tirée de Rekindling Traditions pour’ la soumettre à certaines personnes de la communauté qui connaissent bien le sujet et demandera: « Comment pourrions-nous modifier cette unité d’apprentissage de façon à ce qu’elle corresponde au contexte de notre communauté? » C’est la participation de la communauté qui déterminera les contenus scientifiques autochtones qui seront enseignés dans les cours de sciences à l’école. À sa modeste façon, le projet Rekindling Tradition, fournit aux enseignants et aux enseignantes de sciences un moyen de soutenir activement la décolonisation des sciences à l’école et de contribuer ainsi au développement économique, à la conscience écologique et à la survie culturelle des peuples autochtones du Canada.

Discussions over STS at the Fourth IOSTE Symposium

This paper summarizes the discussions that took place within the STS Working Group of the Fourth IOSTE Symposium. The discussions were organized around published symposium papers, and revolved around the following topics: materials for student use, the role of teachers, the repertoire of teaching strategies, the influence of the school setting and the importance of evaluation.

An Emerging Decolonizing Science Education in Canada

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.RésuméL’article présente les développements en enseignement des sciences depuis 2006, liés à une volonté de décoloniser le Cadre scientifique pancanadien grâce à la reconnaissance des savoirs autochtones comme fondements essentiels pour la compréhension du monde physique. Soulignons en particulier le nouveau curriculum de la Saskatchewan, qui intègre les savoirs autochtones à l’enseignement des sciences à l’école, et bénéficie d’une collaboration continue aussi bien avec les communautés autochtones de cette province qu’avec une maison d’édition pédagogique œuvrant en faveur d’un enseignement des sciences décolonisé, ancré dans le milieu et culturellement responsable.

The Integration of STS into Science Education.

While classroom teachers will always be the key to achieving the educational goal expressed by Rubba above, teachers will be helped significantly by the availability of supportive classroom materials. The current paucity of STS science textbooks is, however, a serious hindrance to the successful integration of STS into science education (Bybee, 1991). Few science teachers have the time, energy, and resources to develop their own STS materials. As Bybee (1991) suggests, science teachers need an STS science textbook that translates STS theory into practical classroom practice. Most needed is an STS science textbook general enough to be relevant to all communities, but flexible enough to encourage teachers to integrate supplementary STS materials that deal with local or global issues of interest to their students.

Logical Reasoning in Science and Technology: An Academic STS Science Textbook.

This article describes a new science textbook, Logical jgeasoning in Science & Technology, LoRST , which teaches traditional scientific facts, principles, and processes embedded in a social and technological context meaningful to an adolescent. Critical-thinking and decision-making skills are developed explicitly in the textbook. Students are guided to construct their own knowledge as they learn scientific facts and principles from physics, chemistry, and biology, in a way that connects those facts and principles with the students’ everyday world. The interdisciplinary nature of LoRST corresponds to the approach to grade 10 science found in many Canadian provinces and in NSTA’s &dquo;Scope, Sequence, and Coordination. &dquo;(2) The textbook is appropriate for 15 to 17 year olds of average academic ability.

Student views on the influence of culture on science

This article reports on the reasoned viewpoints held by 17‐year‐old students (N>2000) concerning the influence on science from cultural norms (expressed in terms of education, moral values, religion and politics). The students’ viewpoints often fell into one of three groups: (1) a small majority who acknowledged the impact of cultural norms on science (an impact validated in the social studies of science literature), (2) a large minority who debated the degree to which cultural constraints can override a scientists individuality, and (3) a small minority who adhered to an idealistic narrow belief in sciences isolation from cultural norms (a view shared by a majority of science teachers). The study detected differences between anglophone and francophone students representing two distinct cultures within Canada. The results of the study have implications for science educators when they develop curricula or plan instruction involving science‐related social controversies, particularly issues related to raci...

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS INSTRUCTION: INTEGRATION, IDEOLOGIES, AND CHOICES

Teachers choose whether or not to integrate Chemistry and Physics, and if so, to what extent. Choices rest on the ideology of a teacher, particularly the professional self-identity of a teacher. Choices become more rational the more a teacher understands the ideologies guiding those choices. The purpose of the article is to uncover some of these ideologies in three different contexts: scientific disciplines, the science curriculum, and relevance of subject matter. Four decades of research in science education suggest that choices can be made, but putting those choices into action is a political process, not a rational process entirely. One major challenge for teachers who want to innovate is the need to rethink and reformulate their professional identities. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.: 2003, 4, 115-130]