Science Education for Democracy and Sustainability: A Transnational Critique of Policy Texts in a Fast-Globalizing Reform Ensemble

In a fast-globalizing reform ensemble, we reframe science education for a concept of civic engagement connected to a new social contract for democracy and sustainability. The American philosopher of education John Dewey, writing in the early 1900s, asserted that democracy requires a facelift with each generation in order to respond to the urgent needs of the moment. Dewey asserted that education acts as a midwife in the delivery of democracy. In this transnational comparative study, we conduct a generative critique of science education reforms in two democratic nation states, Ireland and New Zealand. We draw from critical and feminist perspectives in order to conduct a discourse analysis of two frequently used themes in science education reforms: (1) inclusion and (2) civic engagement. We scrutinize two curriculum policy documents, one in each country to critically interrogate the framing between science education and democracy and to advocate for a radical reimagining of science education in the Anthropocene. Our scrutiny reveals unexamined assumptions in science education reforms in both countries underpinned by a strong logical positivist tradition. Our study provides a suitable theory and method to interrogate discourses in ways that hold complexities and nuances in play and foregrounds care and justice.