Term of Award
Fall 2018
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
John Weaver
Committee Member 1
Daniel Chapman
Committee Member 2
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 3
William Schubert
Committee Member 3 Email
schubert@uic.edu
Abstract
This dissertation proposes a science literacy which revisits the nature of science and how it has fallen away from its inquiry-based roots and has become a tool for oppression and exclusion. The epistemological roots of science begin with curiosity and questioning. Asking questions is also foundational to democratic society. A critical science literacy emphasizes the need to question and to remain curious. Such skills can be incorporated across multiple disciplines. Therefore, this dissertation proposes science literacy not as a literacy in the life or physical sciences, but as a methodology of inquiry, a skillset that nurtures curiosity and strengthens critique. By highlighting the use of science by pseudo-experts to support institutional racism, misogyny, voluntary ignorance, manufactured uncertainty, technological influence, and environmental manipulation, this dissertation suggests that traditional science curriculums allow professional science to manipulate society and exploit the seductiveness of its products on unsuspecting consumers by not emphasizing curiosity and effective questioning. Therefore, a critical science literacy curriculum is (re)learning to question and (re)thinks science as an emphasis towards epistemological curiosity (Freire & Macedo, 1995), creativity, and critical thinking, allowing for the opportunity to imagine a fair and just future so that it can one day become reality.
OCLC Number
1085541897
Catalog Permalink
https://galileo-georgiasouthern.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01GALI_GASOUTH/1r4bu70/alma9916218293402950
Recommended Citation
Stawiery, Anthony Jerome, "(re)Learning to Question: Curriculum Studies and (re)Thinking Science for the 21st Century" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1834.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1834
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
