Discourse and the Construction of the Science-Teacher-Subject: An Examination of why we say the Science Teacher is Elite

Date
2017-03
Authors
Wernikowski, Mark Louis
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Publisher
Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina
Abstract

Science education has found itself in a paradoxical state of stagnant flux. Despite numerous calls for reform and a near consensus amongst science educators on the teaching techniques that hold the most promise, new pedagogical approaches have hardly been implemented. Scholarship advocating for pedagogical change tends to focus on examining teachers’ beliefs, instructional methods and student engagement. These approaches are limited as they often fail to account for the political, social and historical groundings of these practices. This study explores the relations of power, discipline and domination implicated in the construction of the science-teacher-subject. It employs a poststructural conceptualization of the subject of lack to invert the science teacher identity, shifting the focus from ontological questions of self towards an epistemological understanding of the process of subjectification. This epistemological query does not seek the “truth” of what the science teacher is, but rather recognizes that the science teacher is a genealogical formation integrally connected with social power. Using a discursive analytic, this study focuses on the production of science teachers’ identity by thirteen secondary school teachers and draws upon Foucaultian genealogy to demonstrate the implementation and performances of these “historical” discourses in the classroom. The science teacher is subjectified in the data as: 1) a passionate subject that holds a natural affinity for science and teaching science; 2) a gatekeeper to personal and societal advancement, opportunity and financial stability; 3) a modern subject charged with maintaining the narratives of enlightenment; and 4) a postpositivist subject that is responsible for promoting the interconnectedness of science, society and politics. Within this cacophony of diverse subjectifying calls, the science teacher is consistently given social status while being disciplined to maintain the hegemony of Western science. The epistemological supremacy of Western ways of knowing remains foundational in the field of secondary science education, and this framework continues to present the science teacher as objective, rational and blameless for the domination that secures its privileged position. While the science teacher is nearly powerless to change the direction of Western science, the teacher is rewarded with elite status for its reproduction.

Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, University of Regina. ix, 233 p.
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