This dissertation project begins with the premise that science is a specific way of knowing created by the dominant culture, that education is a social process, that schools are sites of cultural production and that teachers are public intellectuals. This study focuses on women in the West African country of Togo who are teaching Western science. It is interested in the roles of Togolese science educators as instruments of domination, liberation and servitude. The educational infrastructure has a history and a present that needs to be considered in relation to the social distribution of power. The project draws upon the concepts of power, knowledge, gender, and culture to look at the history and present moment surrounding the teaching of science in Togo. The last stage of the research involves archival research in France to study the influence of colonial policies on science, culture and education.
