When technology,science and culture meet: insights from ancient Chinese technology

This paper draws together two important agendas in science education. The first is making science education more inclusive such that students from non-Western or indigenous cultures can benefit from culturally relevant curricula. The second is integrating technology into the curriculum under the umbrella of Science–Technology–Society (STS) education to embrace the social aspects of science, with technology serving as a bridge. The advancement of the first agenda is hindered by the pursuance by both Western and non-Western societies of narrow cultural and practical goals without considering the development of science and technology from a cross-cultural perspective. The second agenda is limited by the misconception that technology is applied science, leading to the exclusion from STS discussions of pre-science or indigenous technologies developed by non-Western cultures. Through selected case studies of the evolution of Chinese traditional technologies and their interaction with science, this paper offers a perspective from the Far East, and argues for situating culturally responsive science education in broader historical and cross-cultural contexts to acknowledge the multi-cultural contributions to science and technology. A form of cross-cultural STS education is advanced, encompassing the cultural basis of technological developments, technology diffusion, interactions of traditional technology with science, and the potential development of traditional or indigenous technologies. This approach provides a bridge between the existing universal science education paradigm promoted in the West and the different forms of multi-cultural education advocated by indigenous science educators. To translate theory into practice, a conceptual framework is proposed in which the essential transdisciplinary knowledge base, curricular goals, and pedagogical approaches are embedded.     

Using the Environment in Mathematics and Science Teaching: An African and Aboriginal Perspective

A strong case is made in this paper for the effective utilisation of the learner's environment for science and mathematics teaching in African, rural, and Aboriginal societies. Dwelling on the rich cultural heritage of indigenous, traditional, and rural settings, the paper attempts to explain why, and show how this heritage can be advantageously tapped and transferred to modern day mathematics and science classrooms and laboratories. The need for the integration of school science and mathematics with the lived experiences of learners in indigenous cultures where factors such as folklore, myths, legends, and taboos play powerful roles is also discussed. Integrating the environment into school teaching/learning, the paper argues, would contribute to an effective mathematics-science-environment-society interaction. Additionally, the approach could boost enrolment and performance in mathematics and science for students from indigenous cultural backgrounds, many of who shy away from these areas of study in present-day schools.     

Using the Environment in Mathematics and Science Teaching: An African and Aboriginal Perspective

A strong case is made in this paper for the effective utilisation of the learner's environment for science and mathematics teaching in African, rural, and Aboriginal societies. Dwelling on the rich cultural heritage of indigenous, traditional, and rural settings, the paper attempts to explain why, and show how this heritage can be advantageously tapped and transferred to modern day mathematics and science classrooms and laboratories. The need for the integration of school science and mathematics with the lived experiences of learners in indigenous cultures where factors such as folklore, myths, legends, and taboos play powerful roles is also discussed. Integrating the environment into school teaching/learning, the paper argues, would contribute to an effective mathematics-science-environment-society interaction. Additionally, the approach could boost enrolment and performance in mathematics and science for students from indigenous cultural backgrounds, many of who shy away from these areas of study in present-day schools.     

Women study technology: Goals and restrictions

This paper seeks to justify an assertion that an integration between indigenous Ghanaian culture and western science is possible. Using explanatory frameworks derived from the work of Horton, the similarities and differences between indigenous thought and practice of the Mamprusis of Walewale in Northern Ghana, and western science and technology, are demonstrated. The case studies of research on farming practices and medicine are used to illustrate that the integration of the two cultures is possible. The implication of this for a progressive science education is given.     

The Persistence of Educational Semantics: Patterns of Variation in Monitorial Schooling in Colombia (1821–1844)

This contribution deals with the adoption and interpretation of the monitorial system of education in Colombia between 1821 and 1844, a period during which this pedagogical method was almost mandatory for all the country’s elementary schools. The analysis focuses on the differences between “local necessities” and “local semantic resources” in the interpretation and adoption of the method. The author shows that whereas its implementation in Colombia was closely related to the construction of a new, independent and republican political order, many practices and interpretations reveal astonishing similarities to the history of the method in Spain. These similar features are illustrated at the level of curriculum, teaching practices and educational knowledge. The author discusses how these continuities marked the reception of the method even though the cultural relations between Spain and Colombia were strongly weakened during this time. This fact is interpreted in terms of the persistence of a Hispanic American cultural semantics, which pervaded the circulation and appropriation of purportedly universal educational models.     

Assessing equity beyond knowledge‐ and skills‐based outcomes: A comparative ethnography of two fourth‐grade reform‐based science classrooms

When evaluating equity, researchers often look at the “achievement gap.” Privileging knowledge and skills as primary outcomes of science education misses other, more subtle, but critical, outcomes indexing inequitable science education. In this comparative ethnography, we examined what it meant to “be scientific” in two fourth‐grade classes taught by teachers similarly committed to reform‐based science (RBS) practices in the service of equity. In both classrooms, students developed similar levels of scientific understanding and expressed positive attitudes about learning science. However, in one classroom, a group of African American and Latina girls expressed outright disaffiliation with promoted meanings of “smart science person” (“They are the science people. We aren't like them”), despite the fact that most of them knew the science equally well or, in one case, better than, their classmates. To make sense of these findings, we examine the normative practice of “sharing scientific ideas” in each classroom, a comparison that provided a robust account of the differently accessible meanings of scientific knowledge, scientific investigation, and scientific person in each setting. The findings illustrate that research with equity aims demands attention to culture (everyday classroom practices that promote particular meanings of “science”) and normative identities (culturally produced meanings of “science person” and the accessibility of those meanings). The study: (1) encourages researchers to question taken‐for‐granted assumptions and complexities of RBS and (2) demonstrates to practitioners that enacting what might look like RBS and producing students who know and can do science are but pieces of what it takes to achieve equitable science education. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 459–485, 2011     

Melting ‘Snow’ and Shifting ‘Cultures’: The Strategic Repositioning of Australian Universities' Research and Development

The original C P Snow analysis of intellectual traditions ("the two cultures") highlighted very different world views and ways of proceeding for scientists and non‐scientists and critiqued both cultures for their failure to respond to the challenges of industrialisation and to intersect intellectually. Strong parallels can be drawn with academe today: while new linkages between science and technology have occurred, there has been little intersection with and recognition of the Humanities and Social Sciences and the roles they can play in producing “creative chances” for Australia's strategic development, or of the value of the two cultures “intersecting” in new ways. The future for technological innovation and international competitiveness for Australia lies in melting “Snow” and dissolving the stand‐off between the two “cultures”.     

Climate change? A comparison of language and literacy practices relating to the teaching of science across the Key Stage 2/3 interface in two school clusters

This paper reports the findings of a study of the literacy perceptions and practices of general primary teachers (Key Stage 2) and post‐primary science teachers (Key Stage 3) within two clusters of schools. The study also explores the possible impact on pupils of any difference in the language climate which may accompany them on their journey across this curricular interface. Interviews with science managers and teachers suggest a quite restricted view of literacy is taken in both phases of schooling with no evidence of any practices which may support the notion of curricular continuity. The different approaches to the introduction of scientific terminology, writing, reading and classroom discussion were reflected in pupils' accounts of their experience and clearly posed a problem for some. We suggest there would be merit in teachers adopting a much wider perspective on literacy which recognises the opportunities for developing the interrelated strands of “general literacy” and “the discourses of science” alongside “learning through language”. By addressing each of these domains, and sharing practice across the key stages, a more comprehensive and coherent approach to “language, literacy and science learning” may result, in turn helping minimise the adverse effects of “language climate change”.     

Religious Education: The Depth of the Field

This article responds to sociologist Christian Smith's claim that many teenagers today have lost traditional religious faith and instead espouse a new and erroneous faith in God the “Cosmic Therapist.” The author challenges this claim by comparing two of Smith's chief complaints vis-à-vis teen faith to established portraits of adolescent faith. The comparison reveals that despite differences significant continuities exist between adolescent faith “then” and “now,” a finding that underscores the inherently (but not exclusively) developmental nature of religious faith. The article concludes by affirming Christian Religious Education as a dynamic process of bringing “life to faith and faith to life” with humility, compassion, and hope.     

“五四”功用主义文学观新解

“民主”与“科学”是“五四”新文化运动的两大旗帜。“五四”小说所呈现的科学理性精神、思想方法以及创作观念与西方近代科学有着密切的关联,科学不仅改变了“五四”小说的外部形态,也使得传统的实用文学观披上“科学”的外衣,重新走上了现代小说创作的历史舞台。以往学者往往把实用的文学观摆在客观写实的对立面。事实上,客观写实所蕴含的科学精神本身就含有功用的目的。科学研究精神实际上就是要求作家注重对现实人生问题的“观察”、“分析”和“研究”,使得小说与当下社会存在的问题紧密地联系在一起。科学主义与儒家注重现世的功用文学观融合为一。     

Collateral Learning in Science: Students’ responses to a cross‐cultural unit of work

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of students’ responses to a cross‐cultural science unit entitled “Maintaining health.” The unit was designed to help students to build bridges between their traditional practices and beliefs and western science concepts. This paper reports students’ responses to a pre‐test and post‐test, and their reflections on their learning. The responses were analysed using the collateral learning model. There was evidence of parallel, dependent, and secured collateral learning. The implications for science teaching and for assessing science learning are discussed.     

The differential development of epistemic beliefs in psychology and computer science students: A four-wave longitudinal study

This article analyses the differential development of discipline-specific epistemic beliefs (i.e., beliefs about the nature of knowledge) in computer science and psychology. With regard to computer science, a “hard” discipline, we expected absolute beliefs (knowledge as objective “truths”) to increase over time. In contrast, in the more “soft” discipline of psychology, we expected absolute beliefs to be low and stable, and multiplistic beliefs (knowledge as subjective “opinions”) to follow an inversely U-shaped trajectory. Hypotheses were tested in a three-semester long four-wave study with 226 undergraduates. Data were analysed by multi-group growth modelling for parallel processes. In computer science, absolute beliefs indeed increased over the study period. In psychology, an initial increase in multiplistic beliefs was followed by a steep decrease. We therefore suggest that epistemic “sophistication” should be conceived of as a flexible adaptation of epistemic judgments to the characteristics of specific contexts, and not as a generalized developmental sequence.     

Change of Emphasis in the Mathematics Assessment in Hungary

International survey data showed that Hungarian students performed well in both mathematics and science in the past. Since 1991 achievement in these 2 areas has declined, and this was most clearly shown in Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Two possible reasons for this phenomenon are investigated here: as a consequence of recent political and economical changes; due to the conservative structure of math and science teaching which differ from the international trend. While the achievement of Hungarian students was high on items requiring awareness of the traditional disciplines, it was lower on literacy and life-skill items and topics such as environment issues, measurement, data representation and interpretation, and so forth. Following international trends, the national monitoring surveys have shown a shift from the “academic” approach to the “real-life” application of mathematics. The paper presents both the new approach and the findings from the most recent national survey.     

Gardens or graveyards: Science education reform and school culture

This case study describes what happened when two lead teachers in a statewide reform project tried to change science teaching in their schools. Instead of using traditional criteria for leadership, we view their work in the context of their schools' cultures and use Rosenholtz's (1991) concepts of egalitarianism and isolation to analyze how those cultures contributed to and obstructed reform. Five themes illustrate this model of teacher leadership and the first stirrings of school change: reform as a “science look,” change through parental involvement, competing reforms, change through a “sideways door,” and change through public events. The study shows the importance of patience in reform implementation and the need for sensitive study of early change within school contexts. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 757–775, 1998.     

TENSIONS IN THE THIRD SPACE: LOCATING RELEVANCY IN PRESERVICE SCIENCE TEACHER PREPARATION

In this paper, we build on growing conversations centered around indigenous knowledge and its parity with various ways of knowing nature including traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous ways of living in nature, a Japanese way of knowing seigo-shizen, and Eurocentric sciences. We situate our discussion in Philippine postcolonial realities, where categorical boundaries are blurred, and any attempt to create culturally relevant preservice science teacher preparation will create confusions and tensions between/among/within abovementioned discourses. The Philippines is a highly colonized country—physically, for more than 300 hundred years, and mentally, after our colonizers have long gone. The marks of colonization are still present in our consciousness, in our current local knowledge, and in our ways of living with nature. In the attempt to create a “third space” for culturally relevant science teacher preparation, tensions are highlighted and categorical boundaries are troubled. Where is science? Which one is indigenous or neo-indigenous? Which one is Filipino? Which one is foreign? Which one is ours? Which one is borrowed? These tensions and insights are highlighted through analysis of narratives drawn from interviews with and written outputs of prospective science teachers, as they attempted to make sense of the local knowledge of residents of a rural coastal village in the Philippines during Community Immersion, a community-centered, early field experience in science teacher preparation.     

人类增强视角下从“Human”到“Transhuman”的标志探析

“Transhumanism”是一种思考人类未来的运动,它假定了当前人类只是其发展过程中的较早阶段而非终点,并倡导使用理性,特别是使用以现代科学技术为基础的人类增强来改善人类的生物体,从而步入Transhuman甚至后人类(posthuman)社会。通过人类增强增加Human的属性使其成为Transhuman预示着从Human到Transhuman的一个标志:“基于现代科学技术的干预永久地增加了人类的某种内在属性,并且超出了人类物种在未接受任何增强干预下的最高水平”,而增强干预在增加一些人类属性的同时也在减少另一些属性则预示着从Human到Transhuman的另一标志:“基于现代科学技术的增强干预永久地减损甚至彻底摧毁了人类之生物性、生活的真实性、个体的同一性及其生命的意义和价值之中的任意一个”。这两个标志可独立使用,它们有助于推进Transhumanism的倡导者与反对者的公开对话。     

Is giving up traditional religious culture part of the price to be paid for acquiring higher education? Adaptation of academic Western culture by Jewish Israeli University students of Middle Eastern origin

This research was designed to investigate whether the Middle Eastern student feels that attaining the status of a “Western modern man” is incompatible with maintaining a traditional, religious way of life. In 1980, a representative sample of the Jewish University student population (N = 1250) responded to a questionnaire aimed at measuring religious attitudes, beliefs and practices. The students of Middle Eastern origin proved to be more religious than their Western counterparts, however their feeling about themselves is that not only are they less religious than their parents and grandparents but that they are less religious than they themselves have previously been. This feeling stemmed from their having discarded or having become lax in the carrying out of some of the more extreme religious practices even though they still maintain many of the same religious practices, attitudes and beliefs as their forefathers. The degree of religiosity, both of the Middle Eastern students and their Western counterparts, is strongly influenced by the home, the high school attended and youth movement membership, with the former two having a stronger influence on the Western student and the latter having a stronger influence on the Eastern student. The findings show that though there is some loosening of certain extreme practices on the part of the Eastern student, there is no revolt against home or tradition and the student has found the way to the “new life” without breaking off from the “old ways” of the parental culture.     

Revitalization of the shared commons: education for sustainability and marginalized cultures

Education for sustainability provides a vision for revitalizing the environmental commons while preserving cultural traditions and human rights. What happens if the environmental commons is shared by two politically disparate and conflicting cultures? As in many shared common lands, what happens if one culture is dominant and represents a more affluent society with more resources and educational opportunities? In the case of the Tal and Alkaher study (Cult Stud Sci Edu, 2009), asymmetric power differences between the dominant Israeli society and the minority Arab population yielded different environmental narratives and perceptions of students involved in learning about a mediated conflict in national park land. Similarly, marginalized indigenous cultures in Malawi, Africa share common lands with the dominant European landowners but have distinctly different environmental narratives. Although indigenous ways of living with nature contribute to the sustainability of the environment and culture, African funds of knowledge are conspicuously absent from the Eurocentric school science curriculum. In contrast, examples of experiential learning and recent curriculum development efforts in sustainability science in Malawi are inclusive of indigenous knowledge and practices and are essential for revitalizing the shared commons.     

BODYFAITH AND THE MIND'S HEART: EDUCATIONAL HEALING FOR COMMUNITY

In this paper, I will show that: 1) human consciousness has evolved over time and history, which means that one can no longer “know” and experience the world as the pre‐modern, archaic communities once did; 2) however, there are elements in our contemporary practices of spirituality that are seen particularly through the window of popular religiosity, which can access, though not fully, some of the “mythical,” the archaic, and the primordial wisdom that has been lost or buried through the modernization process; for the Korean/ Korean‐Americans, these elements are most deeply found in musok, namely, Korean Shamanism, which is an indigenous Korean popular magico‐religious practice; and, 3) through the lens of imagination, some elements of Korean shamanic spirituality will be identified to further enrich, nurture, and refresh the dry and hardened religious images of our times.