The Rationale and Challenge for the Integration of Science Studies in the Revision of General Education Curricula

Abstract

A broadened view of scientific literacy for general education revision is detailed, including the history, philosophy, and sociology of science and science and technology studies. We provide a case study from an interdisciplinary college, argue for the integration of science studies into general education curricula, and discuss barriers to success.

The Need for Science Studies: Broadening the View of Scientific Illiteracy

For scientific literacy, knowledge of the sociocultural contexts of science is at least as important as the content of science. The integration of science studies in general education reform efforts is a way to increase the disciplinary and interdisciplinary grappling that both humanists and scientists need to do with the ethical and social issues of science and technology.

Many of the issues in contemporary politics and social policy hinge on the social consequences of science and technology. Many contemporary social issues and controversies in today's media headlines—global warming, stem cell research, cloning, genetically engineered foods, the implications of computers in the workplace and in education, missile defense systems—center on science and technology. Opinion polls and the votes of average citizens determine the funding and implementation of many policies that involve science and technology. Nonscientists need to distinguish scientific evidence from political propaganda and pseudoscientific quackery, and need to separate, at least in the most obvious cases, the genuine scientific data appealed to in the advocacy of a policy or a legal case from the rhetoric and propaganda that interested parties, including famed scientists or technologists, apply in congressional testimony or legal cases. With the ever-growing body of scientific knowledge and the growing importance of science and technology to society, ironically, there is even less room in specific science courses to cover the social and ethical issues of science and technology.

More is needed than the minimal "scientific literacy" that general or introductory science courses provide. Students need to understand the interactions of science with society and culture. This is where science and technology studies, history, philosophy, and the sociology of science and technology can aid in making informed and responsible citizens. Students need to have the tools to distinguish science from pseudoscience, which the history, sociology, and philosophy of science can provide. Students are bombarded by questionable claims labeled as "science," whether in tabloid sensationalism, advertising, dubious remedies for illnesses (mental and physical), or politically motivated claims concerning contraception and global warming.

Even science majors often lack the conceptual tools to evaluate pseudoscientific claims outside (or even, sometimes, inside) their specialties. We have encountered physics majors claiming magical and psychic powers for themselves and senior biochemistry majors believing in young earth creationism. Additionally, students, whether in the arts or the sciences, often have a naive and simplistic conception of the relation of science to its objects as well as to technology. They too often lack understanding of the social, ethical,economic, and political dimensions of science and technology.

A barrier to the attempt to extend efforts at scientific literacy by the inclusion of humanistic and social science approaches in the general education curriculum is the development of postmodernism and the negative reaction of many scientists and some traditional humanists to it. Postmodernism is an amorphous movement, but, importantly for our concerns, it includes denial of the possibility of "theories of everything" in either science or philosophy, skepticism about scientific progress, and denial of traditional objective conceptions of truth. Some opponents of science and technology studies have identified the field as a whole with postmodernism and oppose it in the name of the objectivity and authority of science. The controversy concerning this issue has been dubbed the "Science Wars," which we discuss further below. Despite the fact that many philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science have accepted or defended scientific objectivity, the recent opponents of science and technology studies have in effect claimed that any investigation of the politics, economics, and culture of science and technology undermines respect for them and their achievements.

Knowledge and skills in pure and applied science and technology are an...