Teaching Science

Teaching science cannot be reduced to the acquisition or mastery of skills or techniques but must be defined within a discourse of human agency. The teaching of science occurs within the larger contexts of culture, community, power, and knowledge. Science teaching therefore must respond to the political and ethical consequences that science has in the world, and must be as equally infused with analysis and critique as it is with production, refusing to hide behind modernist claims of objectivity and universal knowledge. Teachers help to construct the dynamics of social power through the experiences they organize and provoke in classrooms.

We begin with this short vignette because it raises for us in dramatic ways many tensions of teaching science. Specifically, it raises two questions: First, what does it mean to do emergent science with children in urban poverty? By emergent science, we mean science that is driven by students' "life-worlds." Thus it is science that emerges from the intersection of the interests, values, experiences, and beliefs of students and their life-worlds. Second, how is emergent science transformative, and for whom is it (or ought it to be) transformative? In other words, how might being open to the kinds of questions and ideas raised by children in poverty be transformative not only for the children, but for the teachers and science as well? This postcard shows us teaching science at a homeless shelter. We are struck at once not by what we are teaching or how we might do so in empowering ways but rather by the experiences and beliefs that shape us into who we are and the immediate meaning it has for any work we might do.

Teaching science in a way that is emergent derives its strength from acknowledging the diversity of ideas, values, and experiences of children. By teaching emergent science, the lives of students can become an integral part of science education. Rather than teaching a removed body of knowledge to students, we wanted to use the experiences that students bring to the classroom to co-construct scientific knowledge. This more than adopting the ideals of the traditional constructivist approach, which doesn't question science and the types of experiences and values that children have.

Teaching science that is emergent can also be transformative for students, teachers, and the domain of science as well. Children of urban poverty can learn to look at science differently because of emergent science. It allows them to be empowered because their life-worlds are used in the teaching of science. As a result, students may feel encouraged to be more involved in science in society.