Attending to Hyperrationality as Unraveling Coloniality in Science Education: A Response to Davis and Philip

This response to Davis and Philip, as part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, takes seriously the idea that a core responsibility of science educators and researchers is to think carefully and critically about students’ socioscientific sensemaking and its relationship to coloniality. This response engages three dimensions of their writing, in particular. First, that emotions do things in learning and therefore demand closer analytic attention in research and teaching. Second, why the emergence of hyperrationality in students’ reasoning (as a specific emotional configuration) is a generative site for identifying when racism, patriarchy, and colonialism imbues STEM learning. Third and finally, this response considers how teachers and researchers might build capacity for the kind of interdisciplinary and interpretive analysis Davis and Philip reflect in their writing, and as is necessary for advancing justice and dignity in science education.