Scientific literacy, ideology and the Natural Science curriculum

South Africa's Curriculum 2005 (C2005) in 1997 and Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) in 2002 claim as their goal the development of scientific literacy. The meaning of the term and debates about it are vital to these policies and similar policies in other countries. In this paper I explore the concept, linking it especially to ideology and purposes of science education. I draw on the South African policy documents and interviews with writers and managers who prepared them. While my focus is ideology, the discussion is also about politics: scientific literacy is a contested idea, used in countries with quite different socio-political conditions. The analysis indicates that C2005 and the RNCS are much like overseas documents, so that the dominant view of ‘equity’ becomes access to ‘world standard curriculum’ (taught in local contexts) and the dominant ideologies tend to be humanist, multicultural and socially critical.