(W)rapping relationships between science education and globalisation

Abstract

This essay reviews the contribution of Rowhea Elmesky in this volume, to the field of research in science education, and places it in the context of the juncture of youth disengagement with science, multicultural education and globalisation, with an underlay of a historical context and critiques of science education from feminist and postcolonial perspectives.

STEM policy and science education: scientistic curriculum and sociopolitical silences

“…It relates these developments to parallel critiques from the late twentieth century with respect to environmental education and a rational scientific approach to curriculum that was dominant in the government discourses of the period. This essay also builds on my previous essay in this journal (Gough 2011) where I discussed how the achievement of "Science for All" presented many challenges for science educators, including that science education does not occur in a social and political vacuum (Fensham 1988), and that science education is in a state of crisis. Aspects of this crisis include a diminishing proportion of students studying sciences, particularly physical sciences, both at school and in universities, to the point where there are shortages of skilled science professionals and qualified science teachers, and continuing, if not growing, student disenchantment and disengagement with school science in the middle years.…”