European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

MULTICULTURAL AN NON-RACIST SCIENCE EDUCATION. NEW APPROACHES ... 319Integrating the multicultural perspective on the curriculum contents:the case of the rice genomeOn the 5 th of April, two groups of researchers reported a draft DNAsequence of rice —a fundamental staple food for more than half theworld’s population, according to Science magazine 9 . The results camefrom two rice varieties, the strain known as indica, from China andother Asian- Pacific countries, and another strain known as japonica,popular in the arid regions and particularly in Japan. This breakthroughis expected to enable scientist to engineer genetically-modified ricestrains resistant to drought, salinity and insects.The results of this research opened the way to the sequencing ofthe genome of other staple-diet cereals such as maize (corn), sorghumand wheat. It is expected to impact global food production greatly.(Syngenta, for example, wants protection from its competitors).Ongoing research depends on the interest of multinational companiesin the problems which mainly affect Third World countries.Science Education should introduce this kind of topics in Scienceteaching when adopting a multicultural perspective. Apart from thespecific scientific contents that underlie the genome sequence,students should be aware of:—The diverse points of view on the consequences of this research,for example, the possibility of avoiding hunger in the Asianregion.—The availability of the rice genome data on the part of theresearch Institutes that carried out the sequences.—Pros and cons of the uncontrolled spreading of GM crops.—The importance of comparing data related to the production ofrice, rice-dependent population, GM production, etc. in order tomeasure the magnitude of the accomplishment.—The way ahead and its possibilities and limitations 10 .To start with, it is necessary to write an information sheet (to behanded out to the students) including the most original part of thetopic and the social consequences of the results obtained. In themulticultural science approach we call that a scenario. It impliespresenting the scientific results in their cultural or multicultural settings.9VVAA (2002). “A Draft Sequence of the Rice Genome (Oryza sativa L. Ssp.Japonica)”. Science, 296, pp. 92-100, abril.10More information about the sequence of the rice genome is available at the BBCweb site: http://www.bbc.co.uk