Publication Type: Paper Presentation
Abstract: The goal of “scientific literacy” for social responsibility and decision making has been recognized in science education policy documents. The science, technology and society (STS) movement is a curricular model that explores societal issues that are related to science and technology. This paper presents a theoretical framework that is grounded in Dewey’s work to conceive of the science, technology and society (STS) movement in science education. The paper outlines the current framework that is used in the literature (constructivism) and discusses how a Deweyan perspective can be more powerful in researching teachers’ experiences with an STS curricular model. I draw on notions of ‘action in the world’ to describe learning and contrast it with notions of learning as mental constructions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: One of the strongest arguments for moving beyond classical debates within social theory and philosophy came from the late Gillian Rose. Her reading of Hegel casts new light on the difficulties inherent within the development of Critical Theory and Marxism, and her thesis on the `broken middle' between Law and Ethics points to new formulations of, for example, representation, judgement and the State. However, her work gives few pointers towards contemporary questions about technology or nature. This paper addresses one such question – how to categorise Objects, or object-assemblages – in the light of her work. Starting with the assumption that it is necessary to pass judgements on Objects whilst working in a “damaged courtroom” (necessarily imperfect conditions of judgement) the paper examines one element of improving those judgements – the development of categories of Objects, or object-assemblages. The paper identifies three distinct sets of attributes for object-assemblages: Performance, Ownership and Description. Combinations of Performance and Ownership are cast together as Power-Object Relations, and three types of such Relations are described – Sovereign, Middling and Neglected. Description is cast in a revision of Caygill’s (1998) reading of the works of Walter Benjamin. Finally these categories are applied to the example of Genetically Modified Crops.