Theme

The theme of CRYSTAL Atlantique is understanding and promoting the culture of science, mathematics and technology (SMT) across the Atlantic Provinces. By the Aculture of science, technology, and mathematics, we mean both the nature of research communities and conventions that govern their work, as well as public awareness of the impact of science-, technology-, and mathematics-related activity on the economic and social well-being of citizens of the region. That culture is poorly represented in the experience of many young people. The problem is not just insufficient science in the school curriculum, but that scientific, technological, and mathematics matters are presented in the schools from an instrumental perspective, typically divorced from social, political, and ethical considerations and debate. Such problems are most acute in relatively rural, economically-undeveloped areas such as Atlantic Canada, where the lack of technical and scientific infrastructure outside the schools gives students little exposure to science, mathematics, and technological culture through avenues other than the standard school curriculum.

One consequence of an inability to deal with the culture of science, well documented and by no means limited to the Atlantic region, is that student interest in science and mathematics typically fades after the early grades. Another is that ever fewer students opt for post-secondary concentrations, and attitudes and opinions about science and mathematics shared by students and parents are shaped as much by popular culture, mass media, and entertainment than by formal learning in science classrooms (Peacock, 2000; Schibeci & Lee, 2003; Solomon,1996). Neglect of science-as-culture can lead, sometimes tragically, to a clash of culturally-based, local knowledge with scientific knowledge and the culture it represents. The well-documented failure of communication between fishers and federal fisheries scientists that contributed to the collapse of the Newfoundland cod stocks in the early 1990s is a vivid example of this dangerous problem. Finlayson (1994) documents how in that episode federal scientists charged with managing fish stocks often ignored the information and insights of local resource users, while resource users in turn mistrusted scientists and lacked sufficient understanding of their methods and aims to enter into a dialogue. What resulted was an environmental and human tragedy rooted in a clash of cultures, of a kind all-too-frequently encountered in the constant episodes of resource management and regulatory decision-making that face our technological society.

If students are to be prepared for citizenship in a technological world, and if the reform of school science and mathematics is to affect more than a student elite, then teachers, educational researchers, and policy-makers have to grasp the fact that there is a culture of science/mathematics and come to grips with its reflection in the schools. Although this limited understanding of the culture of SMT is not restricted to the Atlantic provinces, the resource-based nature of the economies in this region make this the perfect laboratory for studying the effects and implications for such a disenfranchisement.

Subsections

• Management structure
• Research Focus
• Theme
• Working Groups