Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Political Rationalities in Science Education: A Case Study of Teaching Materials Provided by External Actors
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics and Science Education.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5574-8636
2018 (English)In: Cultural, Social, and Political Perspectives in Science Education: A Nordic View / [ed] Kathrin Otrel-Cass, Martin Krabbe Sillasen, Auli Arvola Orlander, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018, p. 75-92Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Many Western societies have a tendency to talk about how schools are failing in the science subjects. School science is often discussed as outdated, not interesting enough for young people and non-effective for the students’ learning. This discourse opens up for external actors such as industrial actors and NGOs to engage in the teaching of science. One example of this is when these actors provide teaching materials. Thus, “statework”, in terms of educational governance, becomes distributed within public and private networks. One example which is analysed in this chapter can be found with the web-based calculators from the environmental organisation, WWF, and the energy company, E.ON; both are used for calculating ecological footprints. The aim is to analyse what political rationalities are invited into classrooms through these ecological footprint calculators and by what means. Our analysis targets how a specific kind of citizen is “made up” through a “centre of calculations”, and what political ideology influences the making of a sustainable citizen. This is achieved through looking into how the desirable citizen is governed through the technologies of accounting, debt and ethics. Through the accuracy of numbers and the bookkeeping of debt, the calculators produce a specific ethical approach. As a result, they suggest that becoming a responsible person is achieved through individual consumption choices rather than taking the issues to the political level. This distributed statework opens up for neoliberal economic and ideological interests to enter the classroom. We claim that it is of the utmost importance that teachers and educational policy-makers be made aware of the governing elements behind the teaching materials provided by external actors.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018. p. 75-92
Series
Cultural Studies of Science Education, ISSN 1879-7229, E-ISSN 1879-7237 ; 15
Keywords [en]
External actors, Political rationalities, Science education, Environmental and sustainability education
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Science Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-151075DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61191-4_8ISBN: 978-3-319-61190-7 (print)ISBN: 978-3-319-61191-4 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-151075DiVA, id: diva2:1171923
Available from: 2018-01-08 Created: 2018-01-08 Last updated: 2022-02-28Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Andrée, Maria

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Andrée, Maria
By organisation
Department of Mathematics and Science Education
Didactics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
isbn
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
isbn
urn-nbn
Total: 140 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf