ABSTRACT

This chapter attempts to sketch the beginning of a sociological critique of school science. It arises out of some of the practical problems faced by a group of science teachers who were concerned to try and radically transform their practice. The chapter looks at the particular way the science/technology split was institutionalised in the nineteenth century, not just as a process of natural evolution, but as an expression of the separation of mental and manual labour in particular social relations of production. To claim that science education is uniquely an expression of alienation through the production of school knowledge is obviously absurd, as is the claim that it can in some new form present unique possibilities for pupils' and teachers' emancipation from 'schooling'. An almost classic example of this process of alienation is illustrated in how the teacher in this transcript specifically sets science apart from everyday life and all other school work.