Teaching Evolution: a Heuristic Study of Personal and Cultural Dissonance

Nine master teachers explore the dynamics of teaching evolution in American public secondary schools. Teaching Darwinian evolution in the United States has always been fraught with peril. This study traces the historical, political, legal, psychological and pedagogical pitfalls faced by public school teachers as they teach Darwinian evolution in a twenty-first century, high-stakes, standards-based public school environment. Using Geoffrey Chaucer?s "The Canterbury Tales" as a model for heuristic writing, Dr. Grimes elucidates these master teachers? experiences, impressions, values and strategies for teaching evolution in an age when less than half of Americans accept Darwinian evolution as a valid explanation for human origins or biological diversity. This study shows how important a teacher?s personal values are, irrespective of laws or standards, on how evolution is presented in the American public school classroom.