“We Question and Believe at the Same Time”: Reconciling Western Science and Other Cultural Knowledges

• In Event: Equity, Diversity, and Science Education

Abstract

An expanding body of research explores the sociocultural challenges presented by the Western emphasis of curriculum content around the world. This study aims to support such inquiry by investigating how high school students and teachers, who maintain strong allegiances to religious and ancestral knowledges, negotiate their relationships with Western modern science. Our interview protocol utilised a complementary combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches where the respondents ranked statements about science and other cultural knowledges, presenting their rationales as they sorted. The research findings suggest a reduction in the potentially hegemonic influence of Western modern science if teachers have greater understanding of the historical and philosophical context of science and promote intellectual engagement of students with science, without demanding belief commitments.

Author

• Lydia E Carol-Ann Burke, University of Toronto