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Books By Associates: Scientism & Education
Emery Hyslop-Margison, currently an associate professor at the University of New Brunswick, has published, with M. Ayaz Nazeem, a critical examination of the growing pressure to apply scientific principles as a means to improve education.
Scientism and Education: Empirical research as neo-liberal ideology.
This volume offers a critical examination of the growing pressure to apply scientific principles as a means to improve education. The authors trace the ideology of scientism to the early faith Auguste Comte placed in science and the scientific method as a panacea to all human problem solving.
By revealing many of the epistemological problems confronted by the social sciences, including education, the authors undermine the prevailing view that a science of education is possible or desirable. Besides revealing the epistemological problems associated with education research, they suggest that the instrumentalism and micro level responsibility related to scientism in education constitute a manipulative ideological smokescreen to distract public attention away from the structural inequities that generate disparate academic outcomes among students in industrialized democracies. The book deals a severe blow to the belief that science is a suitable lens through which to view or strengthen educational practice.
The book is published by Springer, and will be available in December, 2007.