Scaramanga, Jenna;
Reiss, Michael J;
(2023)
Evolutionary stasis: creationism, evolution and climate change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum.
Cultural Studies of Science Education
10.1007/s11422-023-10187-y.
(In press).
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Abstract
There has been little consideration in the science education literature of schools or curricula that advocate creationism. Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) is among the world’s largest providers of creationist science materials with a curriculum divided into a system of workbooks which students complete at their own speed. This article examines the ways in which ACE presents particular areas of science that it considers to be contentious, namely evolution and climate change. The ACE curriculum has recently been rewritten, and we show that, like previous editions, the current curriculum relies on rote memorisation to the exclusion of other styles of learning, and that information presented is often misleading or distorted. Religious explanations of natural phenomena are sometimes given in place of scientific ones, and creationist assumptions are inserted into lessons not directly related to evolution or the Big Bang. Those who reject creationism are depicted as making an immoral choice. ACE’s recent curricula also add material denying the role of humans in climate change. It is argued that both the teaching methods and content of the ACE curriculum place students at an educational disadvantage.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Evolutionary stasis: creationism, evolution and climate change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11422-023-10187-y |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10187-y |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Creationism, Curriculum, Evolution, Textbook analysis, Workbooks |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10170471 |
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