Abstract
Many scholars suggest that recent major science education initiatives apparently tied to intense economic competitiveness and growth have prioritized education about “products” (e.g., laws, theories, innovations) and skills (e.g., experimentation) of fields of science and technology. Such initiatives also, apparently, tend to avoid research findings from fields of humanities and social sciences that frequently link, more or less directly, fields of science and technology with many often-controversial harms for individuals, societies and environments. Cited as particularly problematic among humanity’s many challenges is devastation from climate change associated with humans’ uses of petroleum-fuelled technologies. Over about the last five decades, however, science education scholars have been conducting research that may help educate students about “science-in-context” (SinC) conceptions, perspectives, skills, etc., regarding controversial harms like those mentioned above. In this review article, we analyze summaries provided here by four prominent scholars in their respective SinC fields, that is, about: Science, Technology, Society and Environment relationships, Socially-Acute Questions and Socioscientific Issues. Based on extended experiences by the authors here with aspects of the three SinC fields, we suggest that despite some niche differences in ontological, epistemological and axiological positions of scholarship among them, their congruences perhaps offer hope to those wanting to provide students with more holistic and critical conceptions of associations of fields of science and technology with many of humanity’s numerous personal, social and environmental threats that students may, in turn, use to contribute to a more just and environmentally sound world.
Résumé
Pour de nombreux chercheurs, les grandes initiatives récentes en matière d’éducation scientifique ont donné la priorité à une éducation aux «produits» (lois, théories, innovations) et aux compétences (expériences, par exemple) dans les domaines de l’enseignement des sciences et des technologies. Il apparait également que de telles initiatives ne mettent pas en évidence certaines des relations entre le développement des sciences et des technologies et les effets délétères sur les individus, les sociétés et les environnements. Par exemple, parmi les nombreux défis auxquels l’humanité est confrontée, l’on compte les impacts climatiques associés à l’utilisation par l’être humain de technologies fonctionnant au pétrole. Cela dit, au cours des cinq dernières décennies, des chercheurs du domaine de l’éducation aux sciences ont mené des travaux qui permettent de familiariser les élèves avec les sciences en contexte (SinC). Dans cet article, nous portons un regard analytique sur les synthèses fournies par quatre chercheurs de premier plan dans leur champ respectif des SinC: il s’agit des relations entre les sciences, la technologie, la société et l’environnement (STSE), des questions socialement vives (QSV) et des questions socioscientifiques (SSI). À la lumière des points de vue de ces chercheurs, nous suggérons qu’en dépit des quelques différences de natures ontologiques, épistémologiques et axiologiques, ces champs offrent la possibilité d’alimenter des visions plus holistiques et critiques des relations entre le développement des sciences et des technologies ainsi de nombreux problèmes environnementaux, personnels et sociaux. Ces conceptions, croyons-nous, pourraient être mises à contribution par les élèves dans la perspective d’un monde plus juste et plus respectueux de l’environnement.
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Bencze, L., Pouliot, C., Pedretti, E. et al. SAQ, SSI and STSE education: defending and extending “science-in-context”. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 15, 825–851 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09962-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09962-7