ReUniting Sociological and Psychological Perspectives in/for Science Education An Introduction

  • Wolff-Michael Roth
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Cultural Studies of Science Education book series (CSSE, volume 2)

Abstract

How we think about phenomena of interest is a function of the cultural and historical position of the field in which the phenomenon of interest appears—in science education phenomena of interest include learning concepts, teaching concepts, teacher and student identities, and motivation. Take the following excerpt from an interview between a graduate student of science education, interested in conceptions and discourses about natural phenomena, and another student at her university. The two have come together, as part of a largely tacit social contract, to produce an interview that has as its content the way in which the interviewee (Mary) thinks about diurnal and seasonal changes. The interviewer utters what Mary clearly hears as a question, but the specific nature, as indicated in her own turn, is not clear to her (turn 02). The question concerns the specific position of the sun in the sky at the moment of the interview. Mary offers a possible hearing of the question, which we might gloss as, “So you are asking me ‘Why is the sun in the sky?’”; the interviewer affirms this hearing (turn 03). After a brief pause, Mary offers an answer, where the position in the sky is explained by the facts that it is daytime and that the sun is moving.

Keywords

Science Education Conceptual Change Psychological Perspective Local Ecological Knowledge Plenary Talk 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Wolff-Michael Roth
    • 1
  1. 1.University of VictoriaVictoriaCanada

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