Positing An(other) Ontology Within Multicultural Science Education and/as Ethics-to-Come

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-8 - Curriculum Design and Development: Ontological Tensions and Connections

Abstract

Within science education, questions of “what counts” as science continue to be debated. Largely at stake is the inclusion or exclusion of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous ways-of-living-with- nature (IWLN) alongside Western modern science (WMS), as well as the norms through which they are included, excluded, and juxtaposed. To respond, I turn to Barad’s quantum physics-philosophy to open a space of accountability for and to ontological situatedness, enactment, and production within science education. I revisit the multicultural science education debate to ask ontological questions of the ways in which TEK and IWLN are included/excluded. Lastly, I explore possible possibilities for a science education that is ethically shaped by ontological plurality.

Author

• Marc Roderick Higgins, University of Alberta