Watering the Tree of Science: Science Education, Local Knowledge, and Agency in Zambia’s PSA Program

Abstract

This ethnographic study utilizes the case of the Preparation for Social Action (PSA) program in Zambia to explore the topic of science education for development. Specifically, it looks at how science education can be framed to envision its contributions to community development, drawing on the construct of critical science agency; it examines some of the factors that shape the sort of agency students enact, looking in particular at considerations of knowledge and epistemology in science study; and it takes up the question of the relationship between science and local knowledge in this approach to education for development. The result is offered as a small contribution to phronetic social science research.