Doctoral Dissertation Research: Science Education and the Limits of Institutional Agency

博士生迈克尔·科胡特(范德比尔特大学)将在诺伯特·O·罗斯博士的指导下从事科学教育研究。研究的重点将是新的进化课程与制定这些课程的社会、宗教和文化背景之间的关系。研究将在多个现场进行，包括田纳西州中部和东部的社区，以及教学学院和州政府办公室。将收集数据来记录1)利益相关者信念，因为这些信念与进化论有关；2)利益相关者对教育、科学和进化论教学的概念；3)对进化论的解释；以及4)这些信念、态度和解释与进化论教学之间的关系。研究人员将使用认知和人类学相结合的方法，包括结构化和半结构化访谈、非正式对话、民族志观察、卡片分类任务和文化共识分析。这项研究很重要，因为它将帮助社会科学家理解关于教育政策和实践的信念的文化和社会基础，通过学校、大学和州政府以及教堂、社区、教师工会和商界领袖之间的关系来考虑。对于政策制定者来说，这项研究将有助于阐明文化对理论科学地位的理解与科学标准政策之间的脱节。资助这项研究还支持研究生的教育。

Doctoral student Michael Kohut (Vanderbilt University), supervised by Dr. Norbert O. Ross, will undertake research on science education. The focus of the research will be on the relationship between new evolution curricula and the social, religious, and cultural contexts in which those curricula are being enacted. Research will take place at multiple field sites, comprising communities in middle and eastern Tennessee, as well as teaching colleges and state government offices. Data will be gathered to document 1) stakeholder beliefs, as those beliefs relate to evolutionary theory; 2) stakeholder conceptions of education, science, and evolution teaching; 3) interpretations of evolutionary theory; and 4) the relationships between these beliefs, attitudes and interpretations and the teaching of evolution. The researcher will use a combination of cognitive and anthropological methods, including structured and semi-structured interviews, informal conversation, ethnographic observation, card sorting tasks, and cultural consensus analyses. The research is important because it will help social scientists understand the cultural and social grounding of beliefs about educational policy and practice, considered through the relationships among schools, colleges, and state government, as well as churches, communities, teachers unions, and business leaders. For policy makers, the research will help to elucidate the disjunctures between cultural understandings of the scientific status of theories and science standards policies. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.