Curriculum Transformation In The Earth Sciences: Women's Studies And Geology

Abstract

One reads statements from governmental organizations that the issue of inclusive science is an issue of equity - that for equity's sake, these numbers must change. The "equity case" seems, at times, disingenuous, particularly when one reads reports on the problem of the so-called "pipeline" that state with concern that the U.S. must develop human resources so that the nation's scientific enterprise will thrive rather than languish. For example, in a 1988 editorial in Science, Koshland warned, "The threat of a serious shortage of scientific personnel looms in the years ahead....it is important to find ways to employ underrepresented groups more equitably-for reasons of national interest as well as of equality" (Koshland, 529). "Rosie the Rivetter" comes to mind and one remembers what happened to women in the workforce when Rosie was no longer needed. Koshland continues, "As the country expands into an ever-increasing technological base, the need for women and minorities in both academia and industry increases proportionally (530)." The powerful seem less concerned with the issue of equity than they are with the maintenance of a competitive scientific edge. Certainly there is the issue of parity; women and people of color in the U.S. should have access, equal to that of white men, to the privilege and power of science. But, there is a larger issue. Returning to the question, what might scientists and educators do to rekindle the desire of students to claim a science education that is both necessary and owed to them, women's studies courses may provide models for the transformation of science class curricula and the concomitant reinvigoration of science education. The academic discipline of women's studies was begun more than twenty years ago in order to make education more complete by considering women's lives, history, and culture, subjects long neglected in the traditional curriculum. Over the years the field has evolved, in the non-progressive sense of the word, so that feminist scholarship touches all academic disciplines. In the words of Caryn McTighe Musil, project director for "The Courage to Question," a three-year, women's studies assessment project supported by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, "Transformative as well as additive... feminist scholarship challenges us to re-examine most of what we know using the powerful analytic tool of gender as a socially constructed concept that determines power differentials and opportunities" (Musil, xii). Musil continues, Finally, [Sue Rosser] maintains that women's studies classes work to include "the diversity of women's experiences and to evaluate the intersections of race, class, and gender (215)." In a report of the National Research Council entitled, "Solid Earth Sciences and Society," the authors write, "To accomplish sustainability will require all of our scientific understanding of the natural materials and processes, particularly the material and energy transfers linking the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere (21)." The necessity of interdisciplinary investigation and education is implicit in this statement, as is the opportunity for earth science educators to concern ourselves and our students with the culturally diverse population of the biosphere.