Abstract
In this response essay we offer some critical comments on the nature of science (NOS) and thereby hopefully extend Hodson and Wong’s (2017, this issue) argument concerning understanding scientific practice. Drawing on selected theorising in science and technology studies (STS), we argue that NOS needs to take much more seriously sociopolitical contexts of its own formations and embrace wider contemporary social and ecological imbalances, precarities, and injustices. Drawing on Wittgenstein’s later work, in particular notions of “family resemblances,” we are encouraged by Hodson and Wong’s desires to focus on scientific practice. However, we suggest that their analysis is incomplete because it remains undulywedded to lists of representative features prescinded from scientific practices. We conclude with three suggestions for opening up the NOS black box and extending the scope of NOS debate, by (a) more fully embracing science and education as dynamic, performative, grammatical investigations; (b) exploring ways of reconnecting scientific content (representations of nature) with NOS (scientific cultures); and (c) better understanding NOS as a successful situated curriculum movement. As such, we suggest, it might be distinctively positioned to help challenge increasingly widespread neoliberal, positivistic dreams of futurity.
Résumé
Dans cet article, nous proposons certains commentaires critiques sur la nature des sciences/nature of science (NOS), et ce faisant nous espérons donner plus d’ampleur aux arguments d’Hodson et de Wong concernant la compréhension des pratiques scientifiques. À partir de certains raisonnements théoriques en STS, nous estimons que la NOS a besoin de prendre beaucoup plus au sérieux les contextes sociopolitiques dont elle est issue; elle doit aussi mieux tenir compte de certains déséquilibres écologiques et sociaux et de certaines précarités et injustices contemporaines. Avec les travaux de Wittgenstein, en particulier la notion de « ressemblances familiales », nous apprécions le fait qu’Hodson etWong se soient concentrés sur les pratiques scientifiques. Cependant, nous estimons que leur analyse est incomplète puisqu’elle demeure trop liée à des listes de traits caractéristiques qui existeraient indépendamment des pratiques scientifiques. Nous terminons avec trois propositions pour ouvrir la « boite noire » de la NOS et ainsi élargir la portée du débat en NOS: (a) accepter pleinement l’idée que les sciences et l’enseignement sont des investigations dynamiques, performatives et grammaticales; (b) explorer différentes façons de reconnecter les contenus scientifiques (les représentations de la nature) avec la NOS (les cultures scientifiques); (c) mieux comprendre la NOS comme un mouvement qui a sa place dans les curriculums. Ainsi, nous estimons qu’elle se trouvera dans une position unique pour contraster et questionner certaines idées reçues néolibérales et positivistes axées sur le futurisme.
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Alsop, S., Gardner, S. Opening the Black Box of NOS: Or Knowing How to Go On With Science Education, Wittgenstein, and STS in a Precarious World. Can. J. Sci. Math. Techn. Educ. 17, 27–36 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2016.1271924
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2016.1271924