A Struggle for the Soul: Reversing the Odd Alchemy of Science Schooling

Neoliberal approaches to science education are premised on the illusion of a cosmopolitan well-ordered whole. This is sustained through value assigned to propositional knowledge, which produces what it means to know, learn, and live and whose knowledge matters. Juxtaposing the purportedly inclusive institutional language in the Next Generation Science Standards of science for all citizens with field stories reflecting the transnational reality of the U.S. Mexican population for whom the terms of legal- and rights-based citizenship may not apply, this article argues the need to replace the idea of a well-ordered cosmos with a focus on performative knowledge and possibility.