Postmodernism, Knowledge Building, and Elementary Science

Postmodernist challenges to the status of science and scientific knowledge have intensified concerns about how these topics should be treated in schools. Science, we argue, need not be presented either as a grand march toward Truth or as a body of dubious opinions and practices. Instead, it may be presented as a continuing effort to improve on existing knowledge-an effort students can participate in. Instead of an enthroned "scientific method," there is a commitment to discourse that advances mutual understanding. A 3-month-long discourse carried out by sixth graders is analyzed to show that the basic commitments that enable scientific progress can be realized in elementary schools. To be at home in a knowledge-based society, people need to be able to move freely between scientific and other modes of thought, according to the situation and their purposes. The sixth graders' discourse provides a striking illustration of what this can mean.