ABSTRACT
We live in a scientific age. Final arbiter of our fates is not priest, prophet or prince, but the penetrating eye of the scientist who transcends personal preferences, parochial interests and prevailing social and cultural norms to reveal the world as it is. The ideals of liberal constitutional democracy are freedom and equality – with science providing minister and citizen with the means of establishing what has been and what is, in order to make the best estimate of what is possible. 1 The penchant to look to science and scientific technology to undergird and justify social policy can be seen in the recurring controversies over schooling policies and priorities over the last fifty years. Not only has social science served to justify and legitimate structural changes in schools, and to set policy; it has also shaped the way educational professionals and laypersons think about human learning and the educative process.
