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Reversing the objective: Adding guinea pig pedagogies
Author(s) -
Weinstein Matthew
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/sce.10107
Subject(s) - objectification , sociology , object (grammar) , science education , ethnography , philosophy of science , epistemology , pedagogy , social science , anthropology , philosophy , linguistics
This article explores objectification in science and science education, i.e., the way material is turned into an object of interest to scientists. Drawing on sociological and anthropological drama theory, it examines how objectification does and does not occur in classrooms and schools. To understand the role and relationship of the object to the scientist, I look at current literature from the social studies of science concerning human and nonhuman objects as well as my own ethnographic work on the activism of politicized human research subjects. The paper concludes by how and why a more self‐conscious focus on the object of science is important for those concerned with equity in science education, suggesting that such guinea pig pedagogies restore missing historical and ethical dimensions to science education. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 88: 248–262, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10107