THE ARCHITECT AND THE SCAFFOLD Evolution and Education in South Africa T A HE RCHITECT S AND THE CAFFOLD Evolution and Education in South Africa Edited by Wilmot James Lynne Wilson HUMAN SCIENCES NEW AFRICA RESEARCH COUNCIL EDUCATION Compiled by the Social Cohesion and Integration Research Programme, Human Sciences Research Council (Executive Director: Wilmot James) Editors: Wilmot James and Lynne Wilson Published by the Human Sciences Research Council Publishers Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa and New Africa Education, an imprint of New Africa Books (Pty) Ltd 99 Garfield Road, Claremont, 7700, South Africa ©2002 Human Sciences Research Council First published 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-7969-2003-6 Produced by comPress Distributed in South Africa by Blue Weaver Marketing and Distribution, P.O. Box 30370, Tokai, Cape Town, South Africa, 7966. Tel/Fax: (021) 701-7302, email: [email protected] CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................... viii Wilmot James A Tribute to Stephen Jay Gould................................................................ x Pippa Skotnes Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Wilmot James and Lynne Wilson SECTION 1 Science, Evolution and Schooling in South Africa ................................. 9 CHAPTER1 Science, Evolution and Schooling in South Africa ................................. 10 Jeffrey Lever CHAPTER2 Comment and Response to Science,Evolution and Schooling in South Africa........................................................................................... 45 Wieland Gevers CHAPTER3 C Religion, Science and Evolution in South Africa: on te The Politics and Construction of the Revised National n ts Curriculum Statement for Schools (Grades R–9) ................................... 51 Linda Chisholm v CHAPTER4 Science, Evolution, Religion and Education – Creating Opportunities for Learning in South Africa’s Schools .................................................... 60 Naledi Pandor CHAPTER5 Alternative Sense-making Strategies – Can our Schools handle the Challenge? .............................................................................. 65 Bernard C.Lategan SECTION 2 Evolution, Creationism, Indigenous Knowledge ................................... 73 CHAPTER6 The Evolution/Creationism Debate: Insights and Implications from the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Perspective .................................................................................. 74 Catherine Odora Hoppers CHAPTER7 Islamic Discourse on Evolution: Response to Science, Evolution and Schooling in South Africaby Jeffrey Lever ..................... 89 Abdulkader Tayob CHAPTER8 Evolution, Creationism, Indigenous Knowledge: A Comment from a Somewhat Dissident Jewish Perspective ............... 96 Denis Davis CHAPTER9 Christianity and Evolution ....................................................................... 100 David Chidester SECTION 3 C o Biology, Evolution, Curriculum Development and Publishing ............ 111 n te n ts CHAPTER10 vi The Structure of the Natural Sciences Learning Area Statement and Opportunities within it for the Teaching and Learning of Evolution ............................................................................................... 112 Dev Isaac CHAPTER11 Science, Evolution and Book Publishing: A Publisher’s Dilemma ....... 121 Fathima Dada CHAPTER12 Challenges of Writing about Evolution in School Textbooks ................ 131 Colleen Dawson SECTION 4 The Genome, Biology and Education ..................................................... 141 CHAPTER13 Science, Genomics and Education in South Africa ............................... 142 Kader Asmal About the Authors ..................................................................................... 152 Index........................................................................................................... 156 C o n te n ts vii PREFACE The Colloquium on Science and Evolution in the Fullness of Life held at Spier Estate’s Conference Centre on 8 June 2002 predictably generated a great deal of debate in our newspapers. This is good because the first step in advancing knowledge is to talk about the issues, especially the controversial ones. And evolution is probably the most controversial of all, for it cuts deep into our common-sense understanding of who we are, where we come from and where we are heading as an advanced species populating and destroying, and as we create and live in this world. Evolution is about understanding human nature; no wonder, therefore, that it generates so much ‘heat.’ But the public debate illustrates also the challenges of public understanding of science, human biology and evolutionary theory. Indeed, there is no common vocabulary to discuss the issue rationally; for example, scientists use the term ‘theory’ to refer to a confirmed and coherently organised body of tested fact, while your average citizens think theory is mere speculation. This book intends to go beyond the limits of the public discourse to give more depth to the challenges evolution poses to education P in South Africa. It seeks not only to fill the gaps in public re fa knowledge but also to provide a frame of reference by which we c e can better understand the facts of everyday life. It is therefore part of the architecture and scaffolding of knowledge about ourselves, viii the nature of our family lives, religion and spirituality, art and culture, sexuality, and even sports and politics. We are grateful to all contributors to this volume, all of whom save David Chidester, whose chapter was specially commissioned, gave presentations at the Colloquium on Science and Evolution in the Fullness of Life. Gratitude also goes to Shell and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) for making the Colloquium possible. The Architect and the Scaffold is dedicated to the late Stephen Jay Gould, who made an extraordinary contribution to the public understanding of human biology and evolution. WILMOTJAMES Executive Director Social Cohesion and Integration Research Programme Human Sciences Research Council August 2002 P re fa c e ix A TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN JAY GOULD Pippa Skotnes My first encounter with Stephen Jay Gould was in the late 1970s when I was a second year Archaeology student at the University of Cape Town. It was an encounter characterised by a wonderful academic generosity and a most extraordinary curiosity that seemed prepared to find enlightenment in the most unlikely of places. We had just had a series of lectures on the theories of gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. I recall being highly excited thereafter, and was delighted to identify, in an essay we had to write on the merits of each theory, what I saw as a few flaws in Gould’s thinking. I wrote to tell him this. To my surprise (though it is even more surprising to me now, when I think back on this) he wrote back, concerned to know exactly what my problems were and asking me to keep in touch. I received a couple of postcards a A T while after when he was travelling in Italy; he was still worrying rib u about the flaws, though by this stage I had realised that, as a te to 20-year-old Fine Art student with a passing interest in evolution, S te I wasn’t going to able to hold up my end of the debate, and I steered p h en our correspondence into other areas. Ja y G Sometime later Steve contributed to a book I published on the o u southern San. He loved the idea that the energies of a scientist ld could lie side-by-side those of an artist on the pages of a book. He x also provided me with a number of reflections on various topics, particularly when I was working on a project that examined, in part, aspects of the history of scientific racism in South Africa. His Mismeasure of Man had been a great influence on my own thinking about the history of intelligence-testing and racism, as it has for many others, not least of all in South Africa. It was guided by deep