Feminist Science Education and the Québec Curriculum

Recent philosophical, socio-scientific, and feminist approaches to science have broadened the way that science has historically been conceived. Though historically science has been thought of as objective and value free, the social and cultural aspects of science are increasingly recognized. Concomitantly, science education in schools has undergone a shift away from canonical science instruction to humanistic science teaching. In this thesis, I explore recent socio-scientific and feminist critiques of science. I outline the ways in which these approaches to science contribute to the shifting landscape of science education. Taking concepts that are fundamental to these critiques as an ideological framework, I look specifically at science education in the Quebec context. The 2005 Quebec curriculum reform emphasizes the importance of critiques of science and technology as well as highlights the need for science literacy in students. Through an analysis of the Quebec Education Program as well as secondary cycle one science textbooks, I point out the merits and shortcomings of these texts in socio-scientific and feminist terms. I argue that while the QEP integrates some humanistic science content, it fails to acknowledge feminist critiques of science. In addition, because textbooks largely address humanistic concerns in an inadequate way, I suggest that further work must be done to ensure congruence between curriculum and texts. Finally, I suggest directions for future research into Quebec secondary science education.