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

Creative Commons License
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

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

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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