Pushing the Political, Social, and Disciplinary Boundaries of Science Education: Science Education as a Site for Resistance and Transformation

• In Event: 32.075 - Emerging Critical Voices in the Field of Science Education: Sharing Narratives of Hope, Struggle, and Learning

Abstract

In this chapter I critically analyse the social and institutional boundaries that I have had to navigate to gain acceptance and validation of my vision of science education as a space for transformation and emancipation. I argue that science education needs to be founded in the emancipatory theories of resistance to radicalize its’ aims and practices as a way to move forward our social justice agenda. This needs to start by, as Nathalia Jaramillo and Michelle Carreon (1994) consider of educators committed to transformation, furthering our understanding of ´the relationship between the system that we oppose and the way in which it shapes our opposing acts´ (pg. 407).
Coming from South America, revolutionary and emancipatory thinkers such as Che Guevara and Paulo Freire have shaped my identity as an academic. Their ideas have provided me with an ample lens towards resilience, inclusive education, diversity, transformative learning, emancipatory education and participatory approaches. However, the academic professional practice and the diverse academic structures I have to participate with often confront my commitment towards social and ecological justice. Moreover, despite the discourses in science education to incorporate social aspects of science and educate more critical and informed citizen (Hodson 2003), limited opportunities I find for science educators to generate change, radicalize communities and empower those that have been disempowered by society.

I argue that educators committed to social justice need to move beyond educating critical citizens towards generating critical, caring activist citizens. For this, science educators need to radically change their discourses, practices, measures of success and push towards more radical aims of science education.

Following autoethnography, I critically reflect on my experiences of working with marginalized communities in South America and Australia, and the challenges and opportunities I have encountered to contribute to address oppression and injustice. I discuss how I envision the way forward towards a critical science education that takes up the role of transforming lives and communities by critically analysing how pedagogies of resistance and theories of ethic of care and radical peace education could contribute to re-think science education as a site for resistance and transformation. Pedagogies of resistance encompass ‘reciprocity, solidarity and horizontalidad, or democratic and horizontal decision-making structures.´ (Bajaj 2015, p. 157). Critical peace education ´also resist the forces towards regulation, universalization, and the development of rigid norms and standards for what peace education ought to be´ (Bajaj 2015, p. 156). These multiple views of education as transformational offer clues to challenge those views of science and environmental education which position nature and scientific knowledge as a way of “banking” nature (Freire 1973).

I conclude that to progress the social justice agenda we need to transverse the boundaries of culture, discipline, political and social institutions, and radicalize our discourses and practice in science education.

Author

• Carolina Castano rodriguez, Australian Catholic University