Lyn Carter

Postcolonial Interventions Within Science Education: Using postcolonial ideas to reconsider cultural diversity scholarship

In this paper, I utilise key postcolonial perspectives on multiculturalism and boundaries to reconsider some of science educations scholarship on cultural diversity in order to extend the discourses and methodologies of science education. I begin with a brief overview of postcolonialism that argues its ability to offer theoretical insights to help revise science educations philosophical frameworks in the face of the newly intercivilisational encounters of contemporaneity. I then describe the constructs of multiculturalism, and borders and ‘border thinking’ (after ) that become useful to develop postcolonial readings as an active methodology of critique able to intervene and develops more revealing interpretations of some of science educations scholarship and differentiated experiences. As the focus of these interventions, I have selected ) ‘Defining “Science” in a Multicultural World: Implications for science education’ and ) ‘Multiculturalism, Universalism and Science Education: In search of common ground’ from the ongoing discussion on multiculturalism and cultural diversity within the journal Science Education. Finally, I conclude this paper with some general comments regarding postcolonialism and the science education scholarship on cultural diversity.

Neoliberal Globalization and Learner-Centered Pedagogies: Posing Some Different Questions

The term globalization has come to depict the recent global, largely neoliberal, economic, political, and social restructuring and modes by which we now interpret our world (Featherstone, 1996). It is increasingly clear that contemporary education needs to be considered in tandem with globalization as the dominant logic at work, rethinking and reconfiguring the social landscape in which education is entrenched. This proposition holds for many aspects of education, including learner-centered pedagogies and their heavily promoted ability to support improved learning outcomes. In this article, I pose some general questions of learner-centered pedagogies in the context of globalization that are not so often considered within the celebratory framework in which they find themselves usually embedded. Firstly, I reflect upon the evidence we believe we have that learner-centered pedagogies lead to improvements in learning outcomes and more effective learning. Secondly, I review what learning outcomes are we seeking to improve and to what ends and, finally, ask whether learner-centered pedagogies are in danger of becoming a one-size-fits-all approach in a neoliberal world irrespective of issues of diversity and cultural context.RésuméLe mot globalisation renvoie désormais à la restructuration politique et sociale, largement néolibérale, qui a caractérisé récemment l’économie mondiale, et aux modalités grâce auxquelles nous interprétons aujourd’hui le monde (Featherstone, 1996). Il est de plus en plus clair que l’enseignement actuel doit être considéré, en parallèle avec la globalisation, comme la logique dominante, et que le paysage social dans lequel l’enseignement est enraciné doit être repensé et reconfiguré. Cette proposition vaut pour de nombreux aspects de l’enseignement, y compris la pédagogie centrée sur l’étudiant, dont la capacité d’améliorer les résultats d’apprentissage a été maintes fois vantée. Dans cet article, je soulève certaines questions générales liées à la pédagogie centrée sur l’apprenant dans le contexte de la globalisation, questions qui ne sont pas souvent posées dans le cadre de célébration où elle est normalement intégrée. D’abord, je me penche sur les preuves que nous croyons avoir que cette pédagogie améliore les résultats d’apprentissage et permet réellement un apprentissage plus efficace. Ensuite, je m’interroge sur les résultats d’apprentissage que nous souhaitons améliorer et dans quels buts, et enfin je demande si la pédagogie centrée sur l’apprenant risque de devenir une approche passe-partout dans notre monde néolibéral, qui ne respecte ni la diversité, ni les contextes culturels.

Transformative Learning in Science Education: Investigating Pedagogy for Action

Sociocultural approaches to science education that aim towards a kind of scientific literacy for active citizenship have been increasing in recent years and are now firmly entrenched. Areas of interest are broad and include calls to socio-political action like those from Derek Hodson (Int J Sci Educ 25(6):645–670, 2003) and Larry Bencze (Can J Sci Math Tech Educ 8(4):297–312, 2008). Hodson argues that if contemporary social and environmental problems are to be solved, we need to orient science education strongly towards action. Included in much of this literature, either explicitly or implicitly, is the notion of a transformation in attitudes, behaviours, values, beliefs, and actions. While more often than not used colloquially, transformation is also a term d’art within field of transformative learning (TL). TL in not well known within science education, and we believe it may offer new insights into ways of progressing some of our sociocultural agendas. This chapter outlines research that uses the key precepts and processes of TL and presents findings from a pre-service teaching unit that was framed within TL theory. We ask what real TL may look like in a science classroom and what challenges and issues accompany its implementation.

The Elephant in the Room: Science Education, Neoliberalism and Resistance

In this chapter, I examine the place of political discourse in science education, which Erminia Pedretti and Joanne Nazir (Sci Educ 95(4):601–626, 2011) acknowledge has been accorded very “limited” study (p. 618). Specifically, I review the pervasive metadiscourse of neoliberalism, which is now the common-sense way many of us interpret, live in, and understand the world. Exposing and scrutinizing neoliberalism not only enhances the quality of our theorizing about the underdone political in science education, it also facilitates our attempts to develop better science education. I draw a link between neoliberalism and activism by foregrounding two very significant political moments (both as momentary events that were also momentous turning points) that took place some 30 years apart. Firstly, Michel Foucault’s lectures to the College de France in 1978 and 1979 on biopolitics and governmentality, and secondly, perhaps the better known Occupy Wall Street protests that began during September 2011 in Zuccotti Park in New York City. I finish by drawing out some implications for activism/resistance in science education.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Border Theory and Justice

Recent times have seen a growing preoccupation with diversity as a consequence of the newly intercivilisational encounters of our rapidly globalising world. Globalisation has meant that at the local level, the world’s peoples rub more closely together not only ensuring that diversity, plurality and hybridity have become the leitmotifs of the global age, but also raising some deeply vexing questions about their consequences for science education. For example, questions about the ways in which science knowledge should be conceptualised and represented by science education invite debate about the epistemological parity between western science and other non-western sciences or Indigenous Knowledges (IK), as well as our understanding of justice, and our visions for the future. On the one hand, globalisation brings with it an appreciation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a form of indigenous knowledge while on the other, it sustains rather than challenges existing boundaries and their attendant hegemonic impulses (Li 2003).

Capitalists’ Profitable Virtual Worlds: Roles for Science and Science Education

The wellbeing of many individuals, societies and environments is either dire or under serious threat due to decisions involving fields of science and technology. Arguably, the most significant of these are linked to increasing global climate change—but, many of us are concerned, for example, with health problems (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer) associated with manufactured foods and beverages, death and destruction due to military invasions and conflicts and invasion of privacy through electronic technologies controlled by governments and corporations. From an actor network perspective, culpability for such problems is complex, diffuse and uncertain. However, many suggestthat much fault lies with our current neoliberal capitalist system—which is now highly globalized and strategic, and to a great extent, uses fields of technoscience to semiotically convince a relatively small fraction of the world’s population to repeatedly consume and discard goods and services and associated idealized conceptions while much of the rest of the world labours on their behalf and suffers a range of personal, social and environmental problems. Such a vast and powerful system controlled largely by and mainly benefiting an elite cohort of financiers and corporations at the expense of much of the world needs dramatic reform leading to great improvements in social justice and environmental sustainability. Although it appears to be a mechanism for (re)producing problematic capitalist systems, a site of such possible reform may be science education—given its potential influences, as a nearly ubiquitous social programme—on public consciousness surrounding a key capitalist instrument, that is, fields of technoscience. Although the inertial nature of science education resists many reforms, concepts and principles outlined in this chapter may contribute to positive change.

GLOBALISATION AND POLICY REFORMS: SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH

It is interesting to note that while most globalisation theorists would acknowledge education is, or should be, implicated in accounts of globalisation (Fitzsimons, 2000), its literature does not explore the relationship at any length (exceptions are Beck, 2000; Scholte, 2000). Globalisation theorists’ preoccupation with elaborating the political, economic, legal, civic and other material and cultural dimensions of globalisation unfortunately seems to have marginalised education as a key field within these categories. This is somewhat surprising given the centrality of knowledge to globalisation, and its obvious intersection with education as a major player in its production, rationalisation and allocation (Delanty, 1998). It is also surprising considering education’s powerful ability to explore different thinking of whatever persuasion. Consequently, it is left to the discourses of education to explore the way globalisation constructs contemporary education, and education represents and circulates globalisation. Theses discourses draw together around the two main positions of globalisation commonly identified by theorists like Jameson (1998, p. 56) as the “twin, and not altogether commensurate, faces” of the universalising and hegemonic economic-political globalism, and the fragmented, diverse and opening cultural form (see also Delanty, 2000; Tomlinson, 1999; Wilson & Dissanayake, 1996). The rapidly growing educational policy literatures for example, have begun to investigate questions of global economic and political restructuring and the implementation of various reform agendas (see for example Apple, 2001; Ball, 1997; Lingard & Rizvi, 1998; Morrow & Torres, 2000; Wells, Carnochan, Slayton, Allen & Ash, 1998), while globalised cultural flows, and growing diversity have been explored within comparative and multicultural education discourses (see for example Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 1997; Stoer & Cortesao, 2000). Educational policy scholars have largely argued that the discourses of neoliberalism and neoconservatism have dominated the agenda of educational reform precipitated by globalism (see for instance Apple, 2001; Morrow & Torres, 2000; Wells et al., 1998). Educational reform is the consequence of the extension of

Science Education and Contemporary Times: Finding Our Way Through the Challenges

This chapter argues for science education’s engagement with contemporaneity, and for a repositioning of its research directions to better address the theoretical and methodological challenges raised. To this end, this chapter utilises the more usual discourses of globalisation (for example, Delanty, 2000; Harvey, 2000; Jameson, 1998), as well as Lash’s (2002) formulation of global information culture. It begins by briefly recounting the impact of globalisation on education, and consequently, science education (Carter, 2005), before describing some of Lash’s (2002) perspectives on global information culture relevant to contemporary science education. It sketches out some possible research directions for science education, as well as identifies some of the crucial issues of contemporaneity with which we as science educators can only begin to grapple

“I Had to Take Action Straight Away.” Preservice Teachers’ Accounts of Pro-environmental Action

This chapter focuses on actions at the heart of the STEPWISE framework. Utilising a discursive psychological perspective less usual in science education than cognitive psychology, this chapter investigates preservice teachers’ sense of responsibility for education for sustainability (EfS) or pro-environmental action. Unlike cognitive psychology, the discursive approach acknowledges cultural and relational aspects of any action in the social world and no distinction is made between social and psychological phenomena. Using a coding system developed around the Grammar of Agency, we present findings from our preservice teachers’ development as applied scientifically literate citizens to show how their pro-environmental engagement is limited to individualistic positioning. There may be implications for EfS studies, STEPWISE and other sociopolitical and STSE projects self-reflecting about the cognitive psychological assumptions that depict individual minds and knowledge as separated from their social realisation.

Neoliberalism and STEM Education: Some Australian Policy Discourse.

ABSTRACTThere is now a plethora of writing around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, in addition to the scholarship and practitioner domains, that includes policy a...