Abstract
In Education for Sustainable Development, the promotion of environmentally responsible behaviours is a priority. This study examines dispositional traits of critical thinking related to the inclination to revise worldviews, challenge socially established ideas and engage in critical action (Jiménez-Aleixandre & Puig, this volume). We examine perceived conflicts and obstacles in the steps from evaluating evidence to making a decision and in considering taking action in a socio-scientific context about food choices. The objectives are to examine: 1) participants’ acknowledgement of conflicts between evidence in their arguments and options chosen, and how they justify them; 2) the dimensions related to taking actions towards sustainability in their discourse. A case study was conducted with 85 pre-service primary teachers, who had to choose and construct arguments about vegetarian and omnivorous diets. Conflicting evidence and shortcomings of the elected choices were generally considered by the participants, which indicates open-mindedness and intellectual honesty. Participants’ discourse included spontaneous references to agency, identification of obstacles and mentions to the need for changes. The analysis of the self-reported social influence in their decisions points to difficulties, experienced or anticipated, for taking non-mainstream options. The attribution of such influence may be interpreted as a shifting of responsibility onto society.
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Work supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Education and Universities, partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Contract grant PGC2018-096581-B-C22.
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Brocos, P., Jiménez-Aleixandre, M.P. (2022). Social Responsibility and Critical Disposition for Considering and Acting upon Conflicting Evidence in Argumentation About Sustainable Diets. In: Puig, B., Jiménez-Aleixandre, M.P. (eds) Critical Thinking in Biology and Environmental Education. Contributions from Biology Education Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92006-7_12
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