The (Un)intelligibility of Slow Violence in Science Education

Driven by global hyper-capitalism’s push to commodify every aspect of our lives, we can expect more COVID-19 pandemic-like episodes of quick violence in post-pandemic times. This chapter, however, focuses on another form of violence that might define the ‘capitalocene’ era after the pandemic. This is the ‘slow violence’ resulting from the continuous degradation of local socioecological systems. Dispersed across space and time, slow violence has become a common threat to resource-dependent communities in fragile environments. Although it lacks the immediate shock of quick violence and is harder to recognize and counter due to its gradual and widespread nature, slow violence has proved to be just as deadly for marginalized communities worldwide. This chapter argues that dominant school science discourses, policies, and structures render slow violence unintelligible to students. Further, we propose a vision for post-pandemic science education that makes slow violence intelligible, preparing students and communities to combat it in ways that foster hope and survival.