Page 399 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

374 C.D. Stonebanks

Listening attentively and periodically laughing along with the explanation of
my own use of the water lice experiment, Joe expressed how I needed to publish
and communicate this endeavor with our colleagues. Appropriately, having this
conversation in the Cree village of Mistissini, we agreed that with the influence
and imposition of “western” models of education with cultures and nations that
have experienced the exploitation of imperialism and colonialism, sharing our
attempts to make teaching truly critical and responsive is an important mission.
This mission involves comprehending how knowledge is produced and whose
knowledge is privileged as a global consideration of colonialism and imperialism.
In the absence of critical dialogue, words like “global village” or “sustainability”
have become passive school buzzwords instead of essential concepts worthy of
careful and active consideration, with few exceptions.
What I hope can be further clarified for preservice teachers is the manner in
which the politics of knowledge shapes schooling and how it validates some
privileged narratives and reproduces the silences of the marginalized. Scientific
knowledge, which is often portrayed as the only truth, which is apparently
derived solely from the minds of the dominant power and culture, continues to
subjugate those children who are learning inany different way. From a critical
pedagogy perspective, it is not “science” itself that is in question, promoting
some kind of anti-science stance, but rather what is being examined in order to
serve the needs of those individuals in power. An important question is whether
or not science leads to reducing human (and nonhuman) suffering. Such consid-
eration could be made in all educational contexts if humane critical thinking is
truly being put into practice.
Before beginning a social science class with preservice teachers, I spotted a
“teachable moment” as a student prepared to bite into an unusual perfectly shaped,
stunningly colored and grotesquely large apple and I said out loud for all to hear,
“wait! Before you bite into that apple: do you want to know where it came from?
What were the working conditions of the people who grew and picked it? Whose
land did it come from? Was the fruit indigenous to that area? What chemicals were
used in the growing process? Was the fruit genetically modified in any way? Do
you want to ask these questions before you bite into that apple?” Unmoved, at least
superficially, the student firmly said “no,” and bit into the apple. Was she earnest or
being humorous? I am not sure. But what I can be sure of is that she trusted the
apple much more than she did the critical thinking she was being asked to consider
in a course designed with readings of scholars like Kincheloe, and that other, Apple
(2004).

References

Apple, M. (2004). Ideology and curriculum. New York: Routledge.
Cavanagh, S., & Harper, H. (1994). Lady bountiful: The white woman teacher in multicultural
education. Women’s Education/Des Femmes, 11(2), 27–33.