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Science Education and Subjectivity in (Bio)Political Context

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Ethics and Science Education: How Subjectivity Matters

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education ((BRIEFSEDUCAT))

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Abstract

In this chapter I argue that biopolitics can serve as an orienting concept for ethical and political engagement in science education. Using Hardt and Negri’s (2000, 2009) notion of biopower and biopolitics, I argue that science education finds itself in the interstitial space between knowledges that govern and the apparatus of schooling. Science education is therefore a crucial site of resistance in (bio)political struggles against destructive forces of modern governance.

“He doesn’t know the sentence that has been passed on him?” “No,” said the officer again, pausing a moment as if to let the explorer elaborate his question, and then said: “there would be no point in telling him. He’ll learn it on his body.”

—Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony, (Kafka 2012, p.145)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is certainly debatable whether the immanent character of human thought made the most progress in Europe. However, if nothing else, Hardt and Negri’s argument is that European modernity is both a source of a wealthy tradition and the rise of a great and often terrible power.

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  1. Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Regina, Canada

    Jesse Bazzul

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  1. Jesse Bazzul
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Bazzul, J. (2016). Science Education and Subjectivity in (Bio)Political Context. In: Ethics and Science Education: How Subjectivity Matters. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39132-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39132-8_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39130-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39132-8

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