On the muckiness of science,ethics, and preservice teacher education: contemplating the (im)possibilities of a ‘right’-eous stance

In this article, we wade through the muckiness of ethics in science, teaching, and teacher education, in the form of a generative metalogue. Grounded in Sara’s experience with preservice teachers learning about ethics through a case study of a high school dissection, we contend with what it means to shift away from colonial and masculinist binaries that produce particular moralistic orientations as 'wrong' or 'right.' We contemplate what it means to attempt to teach-think-feel with ethics as 'mucky,' without diminishing attention to relations of power in science and ethics. Through our own thinking–feeling process and grappling with the ways that science and education can be simultaneously oppressive and liberating in an unfinished, complex, and interdependent world (of difference), we propose: Thinking with muckiness is ethical praxis; drawing from our own embodied resources for ethical feelingthinkingdoing is central to this praxis; and (place-conscious) powered relations in science and education must be made explicit.

     

Doctoral students writing: where's the pedagogy?

Writing occupies a key role in doctoral research, because it is the principal channel students use to communicate their ideas, and the basis on which their degree is awarded. Doctoral writing can, therefore, be a source of considerable anxiety. Most doctoral candidates require support and encouragement if they are to develop confidence as writers. Drawing on interviews with two international doctoral students at an Australian university, this paper examines the writing practices the students have encountered and discusses them in the light of recent research on doctoral writing pedagogy. Analysis of the students' experiences in terms of Wenger's ‘communities of practice’ framework suggests that this perspective fails to account adequately for the power relations that impact on the students' learning opportunities. Examining the students' experiences also highlights the importance of good pedagogy in supporting the development of scholarly writing in the doctorate.