Dr Radhika Gorur, at Deakin University, Melbourne
Radhika Gorur is an expert in the areas of international and national assessments and their role in education policy. Gorur positions her academic work in the field of Science and Technology Studies, often taking an Actor Network Theories perspective. In her current work she focuses substantively on large-scale assessments and accountability practices in low-income nations, such as exploring the practices of standardisation and contextualisation in the translation of PISA into PISA for Development (PISA-D). She is also deeply interested in the possibilities for inclusive, sustainable accountability practices as international attention turns to low-income nations. Radhika Gorur has 25 years of experice from teaching in international schools in Nigeria, Oman, India and Australia. From her many interesting publications and previous presentations, the IOSTE Symposium 2018 team is suggesting Gorur’s keynote be inspired from her recent article Seeing like PISA (2016):
Seeing Like PISA: A Cautionary Tale
Research and innovation – science and technology – should, ideally, solve social problems. But what if science and technology are themselves the cause of problems? It is no longer acceptable for scientists and researchers to shrug off responsibility for the harm their science may cause with a careless ‘Not my department!’. In this talk, I draw attention to the long-term harm that may be caused by the undue influence of large-scale comparative assessments as they are absorbed into policy and practice. Inspired by James Scott’s classic ‘Seeing like a State’, I use the analogy of forestry management practices in 18th Century Germany to elaborate the practices of large-scale comparisons and the consequences that may arise from drawing policy lessons from the reductionist, synoptic views they afford. I argue that future educational challenges themselves are perhaps being shaped by some practices of contemporary science.
Radhika Gorur is an expert in the areas of international and national assessments and their role in education policy. Gorur positions her academic work in the field of Science and Technology Studies, often taking an Actor Network Theories perspective. In her current work she focuses substantively on large-scale assessments and accountability practices in low-income nations, such as exploring the practices of standardisation and contextualisation in the translation of PISA into PISA for Development (PISA-D). She is also deeply interested in the possibilities for inclusive, sustainable accountability practices as international attention turns to low-income nations. Radhika Gorur has 25 years of experice from teaching in international schools in Nigeria, Oman, India and Australia. From her many interesting publications and previous presentations, the IOSTE Symposium 2018 team is suggesting Gorur’s keynote be inspired from her recent article Seeing like PISA (2016):
Seeing Like PISA: A Cautionary Tale
Research and innovation – science and technology – should, ideally, solve social problems. But what if science and technology are themselves the cause of problems? It is no longer acceptable for scientists and researchers to shrug off responsibility for the harm their science may cause with a careless ‘Not my department!’. In this talk, I draw attention to the long-term harm that may be caused by the undue influence of large-scale comparative assessments as they are absorbed into policy and practice. Inspired by James Scott’s classic ‘Seeing like a State’, I use the analogy of forestry management practices in 18th Century Germany to elaborate the practices of large-scale comparisons and the consequences that may arise from drawing policy lessons from the reductionist, synoptic views they afford. I argue that future educational challenges themselves are perhaps being shaped by some practices of contemporary science.
Dr Ralph Levinson, at University of London
Ralph Levinson is currently Reader in Education at the Institute of Education, London and has extensive experience of international collaboration, for example Brazil, Palestinian Territories, Korea, Japan, New Zeeland, The Netherlands, Colombia and France. His main research interests are in socio-scientific issues and scientific literacy, science and social justice, science education and creativity, chemistry education and pedagogy in science.
Levinson has presented at previous IOSTE Symposiums and have the potential to give a memorable keynote. Dealing with, on the one hand an interesting overview of the development of the area of ‘controversial issues in science education’ as well as the future for ‘science and social justice’ in a global perspective. Among previous publications are School science teaching for social justice: oppotunities and challenges for practice (2014) and Teaching Evolution in Schools: a matter of contoversy (2014).
Towards a pedagogy of hope: irony and emergence in science education
Although functional scientific literacy is now an accepted part of scientific curricula there is still uneasiness in teaching about integrating social values with science concepts. These problems go beyond pedagogical skills and have deeper roots in epistemology of science, Humean philosophy and Enlightenment rationality. I will argue that social justice sits at the core of science teaching and learning, and hence curriculum design. Drawing on critical realism I discuss how prioritising justice both underpins and enhances scientific knowledge.
Ralph Levinson is currently Reader in Education at the Institute of Education, London and has extensive experience of international collaboration, for example Brazil, Palestinian Territories, Korea, Japan, New Zeeland, The Netherlands, Colombia and France. His main research interests are in socio-scientific issues and scientific literacy, science and social justice, science education and creativity, chemistry education and pedagogy in science.
Levinson has presented at previous IOSTE Symposiums and have the potential to give a memorable keynote. Dealing with, on the one hand an interesting overview of the development of the area of ‘controversial issues in science education’ as well as the future for ‘science and social justice’ in a global perspective. Among previous publications are School science teaching for social justice: oppotunities and challenges for practice (2014) and Teaching Evolution in Schools: a matter of contoversy (2014).
Towards a pedagogy of hope: irony and emergence in science education
Although functional scientific literacy is now an accepted part of scientific curricula there is still uneasiness in teaching about integrating social values with science concepts. These problems go beyond pedagogical skills and have deeper roots in epistemology of science, Humean philosophy and Enlightenment rationality. I will argue that social justice sits at the core of science teaching and learning, and hence curriculum design. Drawing on critical realism I discuss how prioritising justice both underpins and enhances scientific knowledge.
Dr Kathryn L Kirchgasler, at University of Kansas, USA
Kathryn L Kirchgasler is a Lecturer in the Department of Curriculum & Teaching at the University of Kansas, United States. Her research concerns how difference is seen and sorted in science education research, policy, and pedagogy. She combines historical and ethnographic methods to examine how it has become possible to classify students as different kinds of learners who seem to need distinct levels of intruction. She draws on science & technology studies and cultural studies to analyze how pedagogical practices divide children as normal versus at-risk, or as potential scientists versus not-yet-informed citizens. At stake is how these dividing practices embody values, norms and assumptions of human difference that undermine commitments to equality. She has also studied equity implications of data-driven reforms, and how science education formulates sustainabililty in ways that marginalize certain people and forms of knowledge. Her work has appeared in the journal Science Education and edited volumes such as A Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge.
A Paradox of Diversity and Inclusion: Making the Future Citizen in Science Education
Proliferating in international research and policy are calls to improve the science and health literacy of all citizens. Such calls are often linked to talk of a future educational challenge: schools will need to address the “increasing cultural diversity” ascribed to refugees, [im]migrants, and other marginalized groups. Despite the future tense, this linkage is not new. For at least a century, science education has participated in making categories of self and Other by dividing students’ minds as scientific versus superstitious, and their bodies as healthy versus pathological. This keynote aims to open dialogue on how today’s efforts to include “diverse groups” retain norms about the desired future citizen that position some families and communities as lacking the science proficiency needed to fully participate in society. By tracing a colonial history of science education, the talk asks how current research and pedagogy inherit dividing practices that generate new exclusions even as they seek to empower and include.
Kathryn L Kirchgasler is a Lecturer in the Department of Curriculum & Teaching at the University of Kansas, United States. Her research concerns how difference is seen and sorted in science education research, policy, and pedagogy. She combines historical and ethnographic methods to examine how it has become possible to classify students as different kinds of learners who seem to need distinct levels of intruction. She draws on science & technology studies and cultural studies to analyze how pedagogical practices divide children as normal versus at-risk, or as potential scientists versus not-yet-informed citizens. At stake is how these dividing practices embody values, norms and assumptions of human difference that undermine commitments to equality. She has also studied equity implications of data-driven reforms, and how science education formulates sustainabililty in ways that marginalize certain people and forms of knowledge. Her work has appeared in the journal Science Education and edited volumes such as A Political Sociology of Educational Knowledge.
A Paradox of Diversity and Inclusion: Making the Future Citizen in Science Education
Proliferating in international research and policy are calls to improve the science and health literacy of all citizens. Such calls are often linked to talk of a future educational challenge: schools will need to address the “increasing cultural diversity” ascribed to refugees, [im]migrants, and other marginalized groups. Despite the future tense, this linkage is not new. For at least a century, science education has participated in making categories of self and Other by dividing students’ minds as scientific versus superstitious, and their bodies as healthy versus pathological. This keynote aims to open dialogue on how today’s efforts to include “diverse groups” retain norms about the desired future citizen that position some families and communities as lacking the science proficiency needed to fully participate in society. By tracing a colonial history of science education, the talk asks how current research and pedagogy inherit dividing practices that generate new exclusions even as they seek to empower and include.
Dr Steve Alsop, at York University Canada
Steve Alsop is a Professor and Director of the Graduate diploma in Environmental Sustainability in the Faculty of Education, York University, Canada. His research explores the personal, social, political and pedagogical organisation of scientific knowledge and technologies in educational settings and contexts. Such settings include the public sphere, cultural institutions (museums and science centres), new social movements, schools and universities. He teaches courses and supervises graduate students in the fields of education, science and technology studies, environmental sustainability and interdisciplinary studies. His teaching, research and writing are informed by a commitment and belief in the importance and hopes of education building a more wondrous, humane, equitable and just world – a commitment well in line with the IOSTE mission statement. Alsop has an enduring involvement in both ‘affect’ and ‘politics’ in science education. Alsop is a very engaging speaker. Previous publications include for example Climate Change Education: Acting for Change (2015), Activist Science and Technology Education (2014) and Encountering science education’s capacities to affect and be affected (in press).
What might we allow emotions to do? Thinking with the politics of affect in science and technology education.
With the rise of post-truths, matters-of-concern and matters-of-care, the affective dimensions of our work as science and technology educators seems ever more pressing and indispensable. As a response to the conference theme, I explore how emotions frame our lives, and how their possibilities and politics warrant much closer, more intimate, attention.
Steve Alsop is a Professor and Director of the Graduate diploma in Environmental Sustainability in the Faculty of Education, York University, Canada. His research explores the personal, social, political and pedagogical organisation of scientific knowledge and technologies in educational settings and contexts. Such settings include the public sphere, cultural institutions (museums and science centres), new social movements, schools and universities. He teaches courses and supervises graduate students in the fields of education, science and technology studies, environmental sustainability and interdisciplinary studies. His teaching, research and writing are informed by a commitment and belief in the importance and hopes of education building a more wondrous, humane, equitable and just world – a commitment well in line with the IOSTE mission statement. Alsop has an enduring involvement in both ‘affect’ and ‘politics’ in science education. Alsop is a very engaging speaker. Previous publications include for example Climate Change Education: Acting for Change (2015), Activist Science and Technology Education (2014) and Encountering science education’s capacities to affect and be affected (in press).
What might we allow emotions to do? Thinking with the politics of affect in science and technology education.
With the rise of post-truths, matters-of-concern and matters-of-care, the affective dimensions of our work as science and technology educators seems ever more pressing and indispensable. As a response to the conference theme, I explore how emotions frame our lives, and how their possibilities and politics warrant much closer, more intimate, attention.