Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Towards a Politicized Notion of Citizenship for Science Education: Engaging the Social Through Dissensus

  • Article
  • Published:
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This theoretical article draws from the political thought of Jacques Rancière to trouble some taken-for-granted conceptions of citizenship education. Rancière’s notion of politics and dissensus (as opposed to consensus) can lay the groundwork for a version of citizenship that challenges what is deemed sensible, visible, who is counted in communities and on what grounds. This version of citizenship, based on politics and dissensus, disrupts the taken-for-granted social order and seeks to establish equality for those who are what Ranciere calls “the part of no part.” In science, math, and technology education this means rethinking how we approach social and political issues and civic identities, where consensus seeking and nonactivist choices for students prevail. I conclude the article by outlining examples of science education research that work to “redraw the lines” of the social (the social being the stakes of the political); in particular, the Idle No More movement, which is at the forefront of both scientific and political activism in the geographic space known as Canada.

Résumé

Cet article théorique se fonde sur la pensée politique de Jacques Rancière pour secouer les conceptions reçues sur la formation à la citoyenneté. Les notions de Rancière sur la politique et la dissension peuvent servir à tisser le canevas d’une version de la citoyenneté qui défie ce qui est perçu comme sensé et visible, ceux qui comptent dans les communautés et sur quelles bases. En enseignement des sciences, cela signifie repenser nos façons d’aborder les questions sociales et politiques et les identités civiques là où prévalent la recherche de consensus et les choix non activistes chez les étudiants. Je termine l’article par une discussion sur le mouvement Idle No More, qui est au premier plan de l’activisme aussi bien social que scientifique au Canada.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aikenhead, G. S. (1996). Science education: Border crossing into the subculture of science. Studies in Science Education, 27, 1–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aikenhead, G. S., & Ogawa, M. (2007). Indigenous knowledge and science revisited. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2(3), 539–620.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J. (2013). Emancipating subjects in science education: Taking a lesson from Patti Lather and Jacques Rancière. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 8(1), 245–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J. (2014a). The sociopolitical importance of genetic, phenomenological approaches to science teaching and learning. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 10(2), 495–503.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J. (2014b). Tracing “ethical subjectivities” in science education: How biologytextbooks canframe ethico-political choices for students. Research in Science Education, 45(1), 23–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bencze, L., & Carter, L. (2011). Globalizing students acting for the common good. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(6), 648–669.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bencze, L., Sperling, E., & Carter, L. (2012). Students’ research-informed socio-scientific activism: Re/visions for a sustainable future. Research in Science Education, 42(1), 129–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berland, L. K., & Lee, V. R. (2012). In pursuit of consensus: Disagreement and legitimization during small-group argumentation. International Journal of Science Education, 34(12), 1857–1882.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G. (2011). The ignorant citizen: Mouffe, Rancière, and the subject of democratic education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 30(2), 141–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blades, D. W. (2006). Levinas and an ethics for science education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38(5), 647–664.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruna, K. R., & Vann, R. (2007). On pigs and packers: Radically contextualizing a practice of science with Mexican immigrant students. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2(1), 19–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J., Laclau, E., & Žižek, S. (2000). Contingency, hegemony, universality: Contemporary dialogues on the left. New York, NY: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feyerabend, P., & Feyerabend, P. K. (1987). Farewell to reason. New York, NY: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Government of Canada. (2012). Bill C-45 — A Second Act to Implement Certain Provisions of the Budget Tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and Other Measures. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&billId=5754371/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&billId=5754371

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (2006). Science and social inequality: Feminist and postcolonial issues. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (2008). Sciences from below. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jegede, O. J., & Aikenhead, G. S. (1999). Transcending cultural borders: Implications for science teaching. Research in Science & Technological Education, 17(1), 45–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, T. (2013). The inconvenient Indian: A curious account of native people in North America. Toronto, Canada: Anchor.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klinkenborg, V. (2013, September 22). Silencing scientists. New York Times. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.nytimes. com/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/silencing-scientists.html/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/silencing-scientists.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolstø, S. D. (2000). Consensus projects: Teaching science for citizenship. International Journal of Science Education, 22(6), 645–664.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lather, P. (2012). The ruins of neoliberalism and the construction of a new (scientific) subjectivity. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 7(4), 1021–1025.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern (C. Porter, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Latour, B. (2004).Politics of nature: How to bring the sciences into democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemke, J. (2011). The secret identity of science education: Masculine and politically conservative. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6(2), 287–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyotard, J. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKibben, B. (2012, October 1). Idle no more—Think occupy, but with deep deep roots. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/idle-no-more-think-occup_b_2448552.html/bill-mckibben/idle-no-more-think-occup_b_2448552.html

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinley, E. (2008). From object to subject: hybrid identities of indigenous women in science. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3, 959–975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Means, A. (2011). Jacques Ranciere, education, and the art of citizenship. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 33(1), 28–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (1993). The return of the political. London, England: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, J. (2012, January 9). An open letter from the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, on Canada’s commitment to diversify our energy markets and the need to further streamline the regulatory process in order to advance Canada’s national economic interest. [News release]. Retrieved from https://doi.org/www.nrcan.gc.ca/media- room/news-release/2012/1/3520/media- room/news-release/2012/1/3520

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedretti, E. G., Bencze, L., Hewitt, J., Romkey, L., & Jivraj, A. (2008). Promoting issues-based STSE perspectives in science teacher education: Problems of identity and ideology. Science & Education, 17(8–9), 941–960.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, C. (2012). Education in the age of biocapitalism: Optimizing educational life for aflat world. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, J. (1991). The ignorant schoolmaster: Five lessons in intellectual emancipation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, J. (2003). The philosopher and his poor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, J., & Corcoran, S. (2010). Dissensus: on politics and aesthetics. London, England: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1996). Political liberalism. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, A. J. (1998). Strategies for counterresistance: Toward sociotransformative constructivism and learning to teach science for diversity and for understanding. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35(6), 589–622.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, W. M. (2014). Enracinement or the Earth, the originary ark, does not move: On the phenomeno-logical (historical and ontogenetic) origin of common and scientific sense and the genetic method of teaching (for) understanding. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 10(2), 469–494. doi:10.1007/s11422-014-9606-z

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadler, T. (2011). Socio-scientific issues in the classroom. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seiler, G. (2011). Becoming a science teacher: Moving toward creolized science and an ethic of cosmopolitanism. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6(1), 13–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, A. (2012). Global climate change: What has science education got to do with it. Science & Education, 21(1), 33–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiva, V., & Moser, I. (1995). Biopolitics: A feminist and ecological reader on biotechnology. London, England: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trifonas, P. P. (2012). Deconstructing science. CulturalStudies of Science Education, 7, 1027–1036. doi:10.1007/s11422-012-9466-3

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2011). Living in the end times. New York, NY: Verso.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of STEM Education and Teacher Development, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA, 02747, USA

    Jesse Bazzul

Authors
  1. Jesse Bazzul
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jesse Bazzul.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bazzul, J. Towards a Politicized Notion of Citizenship for Science Education: Engaging the Social Through Dissensus. Can J Sci Math Techn 15, 221–233 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2015.1051670

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2015.1051670

Search

Navigation