Introductory biology and ecological literacy: A critical cultural analysis

Despite the lack of accepted standards for the introductory biology course for students majoring in biology, the content and format of the first-year biology course is remarkably uniform in terms of both curriculum and pedagogy. This investigation is a critical cultural analysis of the purpose of, and practices within, undergraduate biology education in general, and the introductory biology course in particular. Drawing on a theoretical framework that combines critical philosophical inquiry, ecological literacy, science studies, and cultural studies, I argue that the failure of biology educators within the university to acknowledge the diversity of their student body and to actively engage social and ecological issues has resulted in a curriculum that has almost no meaning for students, and that is socially and ecologically irresponsible. This work is a search for meaningful alternatives.; Within this work, I attempt to provide biology educators, as well as would-be reformers, with a seldom-seen view of academic biology. This is done to unsettle the status quo, and to initiate processes of seeking out spaces for change. Through the discourses of critical pedagogy and ecological literacy I examine the laboratories, lecture halls, teaching practices, and course materials that students encounter as they experience "the study of life." Additionally, I place the genesis and evolution of the introductory biology course within the sociohistorical context of reform in science education and academic biology in an effort to explain the amazing and problematic stability of this course.