Info on Alternatives to the Use of Animals for Education and Training

Legal information about conscientious objection, and opting-out of dissection and animal use in the classroom

Where to purchase or borrow alternative technologies

  • Digital Frog is an Ontario company offering high quality virtual dissection software.
  • InterNICHE operates a loan system for models and software.
  • Animalearn also operates a lending library of models and software but these are available in the US only.

Organizations and institutions committed to developing and disseminating information regarding alternatives to the use of animals for education and training

Some useful books and articles concerning alternatives and their implementation

 I. Alternatives and Implementation

II. Alternatives and Efficacy

III. Student and Teacher Responses to Dissection

  • AiSPI study on “Non animal alternatives in UBC Undergraduate Education”
  • Canadian Council on Learning (2007) “The cultural divide in science education for Aboriginal learners”
  • Capaldo, Teresa (2004). “The Psychological Effect on Students of Using Animals in Ways that They See as Ethically, Morally and Religiously Wrong”, ALTA, 32, 525-531.
  • Knight, Andrew. 2011. The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 167-175.
  • Oakley, Jan (2013) “I Didn’t Feel Right About Animal Dissection: Dissection objectors share their science class experiences”, Society and Animals 21(4).
  • Oakley, Jan (2012) “Dissection and Choice in the Science Classroom: Student experiences, teacher responses, and a critical analysis of the right to refuse”, Journal of Teaching and Learning. Vol 8 (2).
  • Oakley, Jan (2009) “Under the Knife: Animal dissection as a contested school science activity”, Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education. Vol 1 (2).
  • Oakley, Jan (2008) “Science teachers and the dissection debate: Perspectives on animal dissection and alternatives”, International Journal of Environmental & Science Education. Vol 3 (3).

IV. Alternative Theoretical Paradigms – Animals as Subjects, not Objects of Science Education

  • Aboriginal Education Research Centre (2008) “Learning Indigenous Science from Place”
  • Aikenhead, Glen and Dean Elliott (2010) “An Emerging Decolonizing Science Education in Canada”, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education. Vol 10 (4).
  • Baker, Jeff, Allyson Rayner and Jennifer Wolowic. “Native Science: a primer for science teachers”
  • Bird Rose, Deborah, et. al. (2012) “Thinking Through the Environment, Unsettling the Humanities” Environmental Humanities. Vol. 1
  • Birke, Lynda (2009) “Naming names – or, what’s in it for the animals?” Humanimalia 1 (1).
  • Birke, Lynda (2010) “Structuring relationships: On science, feminism and non-human animal” Feminism & Psychology 20 (3).
  • Birke, Lynda (2012) “Animal Bodies in the Production of Scientific Knowledge: Modelling Medicine” Body & Society 18 (3-4).
  • Galloway, Anne. The More-Than-Human Lab at Victoria University, New Zealand
  • Lemke, J.L. (2001) “Articulating Communities: Sociocultural Perspectives on Science Education” Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Vol. 38 (3).
  • Lloro-Bidart, Teresa (2015) “A Political Ecology of Education in/for the Anthropocene”, Environment and Society: Advances in Research. Vol. 6
  • Lloro-Bidart, Teresa. “Culture as Ability: Organizing Enabling Space for Animals and Humans” Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (forthcoming)
  • Lowan-Trudeau, Greg (2012) “Expanding the conversation: further explorations into Indigenous environmental science education theory, research, and practice” Cultural Studies of Science Education. Vol. 7.
  • Oakley, Jan (2011) “Animality and Environmental Education: Toward an Interspecies Paradigm” Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. Vol. 16
  • Oakley, Jan et. al. (2010) “Animal Encounters in Environmental Education Research” Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. Vol. 15.