A Socio-culturally Sensitive Science Curriculum: What Does It Have to Do with Our Bodies?

Abstract

In the teacher education milieu, the preparation of future science teachers who are socio-culturally sensitive in their practice is highly praised. On the other hand, there is still a considerable gap between what is taught in the teacher education programs and what is eventually transferred into the reality of science classrooms. In other words, this sociocultural sensitivity has not found a place in typical science classrooms, where much emphasis still exists on the individual’s cognitive capacity to memorize information (and subsequently regurgitate it on a test). This, in turn, renders such teacher training programs rather ineffective in promoting the type of transformative (emancipatory) education that has been advocated for years. In addition, it casts doubt on the value of this training for those entering the teaching profession and the development of their ability to teach science in a more appealing, inclusive and relevant (meaningful) manner. In this context, the way that teachers take up science curriculum documents in schools can also complicate matters further. Drawing on a broad range of past and current research in the field of science and teacher education, out-of- and in-classroom personal experiences and discourses, and a brief analysis of the Ontario science curriculum, in this chapter I seek to reiterate (if not revalidate) an approach to science education that focuses on the body as the primary site for knowing and learning in/for science. Rather than a philosophical treatise, it is meant to be a practitioner’s narrative on possible courses of action to explore and revitalize the socio-cultural sensitivity—or lack thereof—of science curriculum practices. The implications of this methodological program in/for science (teacher) education praxis are also discussed.