democratising science technology mathematics … the sq root of 1296 ... history and philosophy of...
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Democratising Science Technology Mathematics Education:
For All, For Life
Anita Rampal
Faculty of Education,
University of Delhi, Delhi, India
Jailed for taking daughter to math exam, tied up –Indian Express March 21, 2015
“All through that night in jail, I thought about what I had
done and why. If she failed, my monthly income of
Rs 7000 would not allow me to help her in any
way… I only want her to study. I don‟t want her to
end up like me. I want my children to do well and
escape this life of poverty.”
Math and Science serve as „gatekeepers‟?
Children‟s achievements in math and science used as markers of a country‟s competitive economic productivity – become filters that keep out most from participating in school and higher education.
President Obama exhorts US to „out-educate‟ India and China in science and math. Have we heard of the verb before?! How does that impact the process of learning, based on „global competition‟ not social cooperation?
Aggressive push for ranking and measuring of children‟s learning, divorced from the learning environments they get; for global comparison, of essential skills for „global citizens‟(Unesco 2015 learning framework).
„People‟s science‟ – insights from history
Kabir – five hundred years back- „main kahta hun
aakhan dekhi to kahta kagad ki lekhi...‟
Paracelsus – the „People‟s Scientist‟– around
that time (1500 A.D.) practiced medicine,
worked with miners, in a poor Swiss village.
Studied miners‟ diseases, metallurgy and
chemistry – often as a wandering physician –
gathered information from common people,
barbers, bath attendants, old wives, magicians
– even when at a university, lectured in a
swiss German dialect not Latin; considered a
„vulgar tongue‟ by academics. Encouraged
combination of alternate forms of medicine
to acknowledge „artisanal epistemology‟ in the
making of modern science
- Understanding nature through the hands and
the senses, not just text and mind
- active role of anonymous artists, ship
builders, foundry men, carpenters,
blacksmiths, miners, gardeners, engravers...
unacknowledged, collective
women’s knowledge of local plants and
specimens used by early botanists
Galileo – appropriated from artisan‟s „books of
secrets‟, not acknowledged. His first math
education from artists and instrument
makers.
Understanding science - technology- society
in STM education – over time
Hierarchies – what is Sc and T? Technology
not application of sc? the myth prevails
18th century - social forces and technological
developments - Industrial Rev - natural
philosophers retreated into universities;
professionalisation of “science”; separation
of „pure science‟ from the „vulgarities of
practical knowledge‟.
Science distanced itself from its technological
and social connections, from the consumers
of its knowledge, and from any social
responsibility.
Contestations over school science
By 1860 a reshaped domain of disciplines –
biology, chemistry, geology, physics, math.
These became the valid ways to view nature,
also in high school, where everyday practical
knowledge and social relevance were ignored.
Curriculum of „Science of the Common Things‟
developed with the poor working classes – not
introduced in all elementary schools in
England – seen as a threat to the social order –
entered public education twenty years later, as
an abstract decontextualised subject, to „sift
those golden grains‟ from sand
Education For All World Declaration 1990
An „expanded vision for education‟ - for every
child, youth and adult -, “recognizing that
traditional knowledge and indigenous cultural
heritage have value and validity ..and capacity
to both define and promote development”.
In India this had aligned with the participatory
campaign for adult literacy, addressing local
cultural knowledge, in local languages.
What science and math for all? For every child,
youth, adult? For life?
2015 – Sustainable Dev Goals – humanistic
education, role of indigenous knowledges and
alternate worldviews – but strong corporate
push for standardised learning metrics
Right to Education Act 2010, (6-14 yrs) to „learn through exploration‟; „free of fear and anxiety‟. No selection (of „merit‟, „talent‟), no detention, or competitive Board examinations till class VIII. 25% seats for the EWS – Supreme Court defends it “to strengthen the social fabric of democracy”.
Curricular reforms – NCF 2005, but no effective change in Assessment.
CCE? Testing regimes: dissuade creative learners and teachers; information based procedural, no cultural relevance.Teaching-learning limited – no exploration, observation, critical thinking, innovation and improvisation, cooperation, empathy, ….??
What is being assessed and how?
Exam reform in Kerala state
Class VII: Evaluation Activity (1 hr)
Compound Interest
Process: Facilitator and children
participate in a discussion
What banks are there in your
area? Have you ever been to
a bank? For what? For what
purposes do they give loans?
What about moneylenders?
What are the interest rates for
different types of loans?
The facilitator presents the problem
in the form of a story. Shows two
actual bank advertisements.
Class VIII existing exam
Find the sq root of 1296
Solve -4/5x3/7x15/16x -14/9
Find the cube root of 729
Solve 8x+4=3(x-1)+7
Find the smallest whole number
by which 1008 be multiplied
so that it becomes a perfect
square; also find its sq root
The cost of an article was 15500.
450 was spent on its repair.
If sold at a profit of 15% find
its selling price.
I borrow Rs 12000 from Akhtar at
6% per annum simple
interest for 2 yrs. Had I
borrowed at 6% compound
interest what extra amount
would I have to pay.
HSTP- 1972-2002, relating middle school
science to real life contexts of rural
children (Madhya Pradesh)
- diverse knowledge sources
- experiments and field observations
- development of concepts, space and
pace for tacit and explicit understandings
- focus on children‟s language, diverse
styles of visual representation
critical agency- for teachers and children
to challenge the status quo
courage and confidence to think, investigate,
challenge beliefs ….the legacy of ‟scientific
temper‟ in STM today?
Probability or gambling? Close HSTP?
Legislators in 1985 call for closing HSTP – say it
promotes „learning by doing‟ – also gambling!
Board Class VIII „open book‟ exam problem on local
gambling - find the probability of winning or losing.
Member of the Legislative Assembly - long note on the
history and philosophy of probability theory - born at
the gaming tables, applied in insurance, modern
biology, physics. Quotes poker problems from math
textbooks in the US, UK, USSR .
Says – gambling can be stopped through science
education, not moralising; Global history of political
interference in science; legislators not to decide on
science and math policy, first educate themselves.
What about the state lottery? Is that not gambling?
The National Literacy Campaign, in the 90s, helped
mediate everyday knowledge through critical
pedagogy inspired by Freire
Work with BGVS volunteers and neo-literate
adults, led to a critique of the school curriculum,
a socio-cultural approach to math; their
practices assigned meanings to numbers,
estimations, measures. Led to group activities,
even participatory resource mapping;
to read and „right‟ their world.
How many mangoes does a tree yield in a year?
How many rotis do I make (or eat) in a year?
How many people in our village? Children 6-14 yrs?
How much water do we use? Can we harvest rain?
The Metric Mela (fair) Mobilising the village.
Wonder why „metric‟? Your
card says height, weight, etc.
Why „weight of a feather?‟
Wait a minute, what‟s that –
„length of nose‟?! They are not
going to measure the length of
your nose, are they?!Finally the prize
ceremony! For the
longest nose; the
shortest toe; the best
guess for the weight of
the egg - the egg as
prize! You get the
lightest prize for … the
weight of the chicken
feather! !!
Each neo-literate who ran a stall
talks about it – how many got
close to the answer, how many
gave wild guesses (much laughter
at those!), and records all
converted to metric units, from
whatever the people gave in.
The NCERT Primary EVS, Math Curriculum
Equity and quality – culturally responsive to the
disparities and „difference‟. To ensure
representation of all – a pedagogy of empathy.
Real life protagonists to animate the „thematic
chapters‟ – the woman junk seller, brick masons,
fish-workers, etc
Diverse genres – expressive narratives, folklore,
auto/biographical stories, recipes, travelogues,
diaries, humour, fantasy, etc
Not stereotyped images – but multicultural
representations from folk, indigenous and
contemporary art, photography, children‟s art,
cartoons, etc. Non-linear „visual text‟
Transcend subject boundaries.
Thematic units: contexts of work, heritage, craft
Primary math chapters
Building with Bricks, Fish
Tale, true story of the Junk
Seller, Visit to pre-historic
cave paintings, etc
Timelines
Empathy – to
value a person,
her agency, her
time, her craft, her
struggle for
justice.
Difficult lives,
harsh realities.
No „infantilisation‟
Mediating reform in the real world
Syllabi and textbooks changed, not processes that
change classrooms. Resource starved schools,
poorly trained and contractual teachers.
Challenges - problem posing pedagogies (Freire,
Gutstein), working against valorisations of
knowledges and voices, critically engaging with
„difference‟, for equity and social justice
forging an „articulation‟ of different discourses –
home, school, work; grappling with the hegemony
of English language for science and mathematics.
Layered negotiation with bureaucracies, legislators,
schools, teachers, parents, the media….
What about the University system?
What about the high school curricula? Higher ?