Taming Nanotechnology into Curriculum Content: Textbook Analysis through the Lens of Dark Pedagogy

Abstract

The current study is an attempt to explore how the perspectives of “dark pedagogy” and, more broadly, “New Materialism” could be deployed in the interpretation of socioscientific issues-related curriculums. The concept of “hyperobject” was particularly deployed to understand how well curriculum materials could support the challenge of anthropocentrism brought about by the presumed divide between culture and nature. The nanotechnology-related sections in three senior secondary Physics textbooks commonly used in Hong Kong have been included in the current analysis. Through considering how well the characteristics of “hyperobjects” are being included in the textbooks, it is asserted that the impossibility to grasp the totality of nanotechnology has not been given due attention. The ignorance of the withdrawal of nanotechnology was suggested as contributing to the sustaining of anthropocentrism in the discussion of socioscientific issues. To combat the manipulative mindset resulted, a reframing of the curriculum through a dark pedagogy lens that foregrounds the emergence of agency and the feeling of surprise is being suggested. It is further recommended that the New Materialist perspective be more broadly deployed in the science education research community.