The Architect and the Scaffold: Evolution and Education in South Africa (African Human Genome Initiative series)

171 Pages·2002·1.75 MB·English

by  Wilmot James

THE ARCHITECT
AND THE SCAFFOLD
Evolution and Education
in South Africa

T A
HE RCHITECT
S
AND THE CAFFOLD
Evolution and Education
in South Africa
Edited by
Wilmot James
Lynne Wilson
HUMAN SCIENCES NEW AFRICA
RESEARCH COUNCIL EDUCATION
Compiled by the Social Cohesion and Integration Research Programme,
Human Sciences Research Council (Executive Director: Wilmot James)
Editors: Wilmot James and Lynne Wilson
Published by the Human Sciences Research Council Publishers
Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
and
New Africa Education, an imprint of New Africa Books (Pty) Ltd
99 Garfield Road, Claremont, 7700, South Africa
©2002 Human Sciences Research Council
First published 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
ISBN 0-7969-2003-6
Produced by comPress
Distributed in South Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution,
P.O. Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, South Africa, 7966. Tel/Fax: [phone],
email: [email protected]
CONTENTS
Preface ....................................................................................................... viii
Wilmot James
A Tribute to Stephen Jay Gould................................................................ x
Pippa Skotnes
Introduction .............................................................................................. 1
Wilmot James and Lynne Wilson
SECTION 1
Science, Evolution and Schooling in South Africa ................................. 9
CHAPTER1
Science, Evolution and Schooling in South Africa ................................. 10
Jeffrey Lever
CHAPTER2
Comment and Response to Science,Evolution and Schooling
in South Africa........................................................................................... 45
Wieland Gevers
CHAPTER3
C
Religion, Science and Evolution in South Africa: on
te
The Politics and Construction of the Revised National n
ts
Curriculum Statement for Schools (Grades R–9) ................................... 51
Linda Chisholm v
CHAPTER4
Science, Evolution, Religion and Education – Creating Opportunities
for Learning in South Africa’s Schools .................................................... 60
Naledi Pandor
CHAPTER5
Alternative Sense-making Strategies – Can our Schools
handle the Challenge? .............................................................................. 65
Bernard C.Lategan
SECTION 2
Evolution, Creationism, Indigenous Knowledge ................................... 73
CHAPTER6
The Evolution/Creationism Debate: Insights and
Implications from the Indigenous Knowledge
Systems Perspective .................................................................................. 74
Catherine Odora Hoppers
CHAPTER7
Islamic Discourse on Evolution: Response to Science,
Evolution and Schooling in South Africaby Jeffrey Lever ..................... 89
Abdulkader Tayob
CHAPTER8
Evolution, Creationism, Indigenous Knowledge:
A Comment from a Somewhat Dissident Jewish Perspective ............... 96
Denis Davis
CHAPTER9
Christianity and Evolution ....................................................................... 100
David Chidester
SECTION 3
C
o Biology, Evolution, Curriculum Development and Publishing ............ 111
n
te
n
ts
CHAPTER10
vi The Structure of the Natural Sciences Learning Area Statement
and Opportunities within it for the Teaching and Learning
of Evolution ............................................................................................... 112
Dev Isaac
CHAPTER11
Science, Evolution and Book Publishing: A Publisher’s Dilemma ....... 121
Fathima Dada
CHAPTER12
Challenges of Writing about Evolution in School Textbooks ................ 131
Colleen Dawson
SECTION 4
The Genome, Biology and Education ..................................................... 141
CHAPTER13
Science, Genomics and Education in South Africa ............................... 142
Kader Asmal
About the Authors ..................................................................................... 152
Index........................................................................................................... 156
C
o
n
te
n
ts
vii
PREFACE
The Colloquium on Science and Evolution in the Fullness of Life
held at Spier Estate’s Conference Centre on 8 June 2002 predictably
generated a great deal of debate in our newspapers. This is good
because the first step in advancing knowledge is to talk about the
issues, especially the controversial ones.
And evolution is probably the most controversial of all, for it cuts
deep into our common-sense understanding of who we are, where
we come from and where we are heading as an advanced species
populating and destroying, and as we create and live in this world.
Evolution is about understanding human nature; no wonder,
therefore, that it generates so much ‘heat.’
But the public debate illustrates also the challenges of public
understanding of science, human biology and evolutionary theory.
Indeed, there is no common vocabulary to discuss the issue
rationally; for example, scientists use the term ‘theory’ to refer to a
confirmed and coherently organised body of tested fact, while
your average citizens think theory is mere speculation.
This book intends to go beyond the limits of the public discourse
to give more depth to the challenges evolution poses to education
P in South Africa. It seeks not only to fill the gaps in public
re
fa knowledge but also to provide a frame of reference by which we
c
e
can better understand the facts of everyday life. It is therefore part
of the architecture and scaffolding of knowledge about ourselves,
viii
the nature of our family lives, religion and spirituality, art and
culture, sexuality, and even sports and politics.
We are grateful to all contributors to this volume, all of whom
save David Chidester, whose chapter was specially commissioned,
gave presentations at the Colloquium on Science and Evolution in
the Fullness of Life. Gratitude also goes to Shell and the Swiss
Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) for making the
Colloquium possible.
The Architect and the Scaffold is dedicated to the late Stephen Jay
Gould, who made an extraordinary contribution to the public
understanding of human biology and evolution.
WILMOTJAMES
Executive Director
Social Cohesion and Integration Research Programme
Human Sciences Research Council
August 2002
P
re
fa
c
e
ix
A TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN JAY GOULD
Pippa Skotnes
My first encounter with Stephen Jay Gould was in the late 1970s
when I was a second year Archaeology student at the University of
Cape Town. It was an encounter characterised by a wonderful
academic generosity and a most extraordinary curiosity that
seemed prepared to find enlightenment in the most unlikely of
places. We had just had a series of lectures on the theories of
gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. I recall being highly
excited thereafter, and was delighted to identify, in an essay we had
to write on the merits of each theory, what I saw as a few flaws in
Gould’s thinking. I wrote to tell him this. To my surprise (though it
is even more surprising to me now, when I think back on this) he
wrote back, concerned to know exactly what my problems were
and asking me to keep in touch. I received a couple of postcards a
A
T while after when he was travelling in Italy; he was still worrying
rib
u about the flaws, though by this stage I had realised that, as a
te
to 20-year-old Fine Art student with a passing interest in evolution,
S
te I wasn’t going to able to hold up my end of the debate, and I steered
p
h
en our correspondence into other areas.
Ja
y G Sometime later Steve contributed to a book I published on the
o
u southern San. He loved the idea that the energies of a scientist
ld
could lie side-by-side those of an artist on the pages of a book. He
x also provided me with a number of reflections on various topics,
particularly when I was working on a project that examined, in
part, aspects of the history of scientific racism in South Africa. His
Mismeasure of Man had been a great influence on my own thinking
about the history of intelligence-testing and racism, as it has for
many others, not least of all in South Africa. It was guided by deep