Science as Human Endeavour, Critical Pedagogy and Practitioner Inquiry: Three Early Career Cases

Abstract

Science as a Human Endeavour (SHE) is an innovative strand of the most recent Australian Curriculum: Science. The introduction of SHE is welcome and comes at a time when Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is under increasing scrutiny both in Australia and across the world, with some commentators identifying a possible “crisis”. Such an adventurous addition to the curriculum, however well-intentioned, was always going to provoke significant challenges to the repertoires and pedagogical approaches of many teachers, and particularly early career teachers. This project aimed to link three important elements of science education: pedagogy related to SHE, concepts of critical pedagogy and the professional learning of teachers through practitioner inquiry. We document how three early career teachers of science, all teaching in low socio-economic schools in challenging circumstances, found ways to engage with the demands of the Australian Curriculum and redesign pedagogy for incorporating the SHE strand into their practice. These early career teachers participated in a year-long action research study into the effectiveness of their own pedagogical practices. The paper examines the challenge these teachers faced as they incorporated SHE into their teaching.