Cultural Studies in Science Education

Introduction

The fundamental nature of modern science and, consequently, the proper methods of teaching science, have been extensively critiqued by theorists in the field of Cultural Studies of Science Education (CSSE). The launch of the journal Cultural Studies of Science Educationin 2006 marks a key point in the history of the CSSE field. This journal focuses on research that understands modern science and science education to be particular cultural forms of establishing belief, embedded in, responsive to, and determined by larger cultural contexts. Holding that modern “western” science is a but an outgrowth of a western and/or European culture, the privileging of the methods and the resultant knowledge of western science is to be challenged, critiqued, and ended. The cultural positions of non-western peoples, and in particular the endemic, local sciences of each such population, are to be recognized as worthy of the same intellectual respect accorded to western modern science. The...