Postmodern imaginative constructivism for STSE understanding

Abstract

The influences of science and technology on society and the environment (STSE) have been an integral component of the formal educational curricula for four decades, and yet industrialized countries frequently struggle to balance the benefits of science and technology with the social justice and environmental issues inherent to contemporary society. Canadian citizens often fail to connect scientific and technological understandings with the subtle and yet ubiquitous personal, political, cultural, environmental, and social consequences that result from these understandings. This phenomenological research will explore potential discourses of control within education and society that may preclude authentic, contextual, and meaningful understandings of science and technology relative to their significant consequences, and an imaginative adaptation of Egan's Ironic Understanding and McGinn's Foreground and Background Dimensions to imaginatively express an awareness of postmodern STSE understandings. This research is designed to explore student understandings of how the diverse and complex influences of science and technology affect students through postmodern, imaginative, and constructivist photography. Participants demonstrated a limited Ironic Understanding of STSE, a critical awareness of specific modernist influences, increased personal and affective connections to science and technology, and an awareness of the duality of STSE. Participants' photographic artifacts can be utilized to inform teaching and learning strategies in order to purposefully craft curriculum and lesson plan design for personalized and engaging learning opportunities that incorporate students' awareness of STSE.