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 ?