| dc.description.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. | en_US |
