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Teachers’ Conceptions About the Genetic Determinism of Human Behaviour: A Survey in 23 Countries

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Abstract

This work analyses the answers to a questionnaire from 8,285 in-service and pre-service teachers from 23 countries, elaborated by the Biohead-Citizen research project, to investigate teachers’ conceptions related to the genetic determinism of human behaviour. A principal components analysis is used to assess the main trends in all the interviewed teachers’ conceptions. This illustrates that innatism is present in two distinct ways: in relation to individuals (e.g. genetic determinism to justify intellectual likeness between individuals such as twins) or in relation to groups of humans (e.g. genetic determinism to justify gender differences or the superiority of some human ethnic groups). A between-factor analysis discriminates between countries, showing very significant differences. There is more innatism among teachers’ conceptions in African countries and Lebanon than in European countries, Brazil and Australia. Among the other controlled parameters, only two are significantly independent of the country: the level of training and the level of knowledge of biology. A co-inertia analysis shows a strong correlation between non-citizen attitudes towards and innatist conceptions of genetic determinism regarding human groups. We discuss these findings and their implications for education.

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Acknowledgments

A large part of this work has been supported by the Biohead-Citizen European Research Project (Specific Targeted Research n° CIT2-CT2004-506015, FP6, Priority 7: ‘Biology, Health and Environmental Education for Better Citizenship’). We particularly thank all the teams that gathered the data used in the present work, under the responsibility of the following team leaders: Algeria: Farida Khammar, Biology, USTHB; Australia: Frances Quinn, University New England, NSW; Brazil: Graziela Lopez, University Sao Paulo & Paloma Silva, UNESP, Bauru; Burkina Faso: Ivette Béré – Yoda, ENS Ouagadougou; Cameroon: Lawrence Ntam Nchia, ENS Yaoundé; Cyprus: Nicos Valanides, University of Cyprus; Denmark: Pierre Clément & Jan Solberg, IND, University of Copenhagen; Estonia: Kai Pata & Tago Sarapuu, University of Tartu; Finland: Anna-Liisa Rauma-Kosonen, University of Joensuu; France: Pierre Clément, Univ. Lyon 1 & Daniel Favre, Univ. Montpellier 2; Germany: Franz Bogner, University of Bayreuth; Great Britain: Stephen Tomkins, UCAM-EDUC, London; Hungary: Attila Varga, National Institute for Public Education; Italy: Silvia Caravita & Adriana Valente, CNR, Roma; Lebanon: Iman Khalil, Faculty Pedagogy, Université Libanaise; Lithuania: Jurga Turcinaviciene, University of Vilnius; Malta: Paul Pace, University of Malta; Morocco: Sabah Selmaoui, ENS Marrakech; Poland: Elwira Samonek-Miciuk, University of Lublin; Portugal: Graça Carvalho, IEC, University of Minho; Romania: Adrienne Kozan-Naumescu, Babes-Bolyai University Cluj; Senegal: Mame Seyni Thiaw, FASTEF, UCAD; Tunisia: Mondher Abrougui, ISEFC, University of Tunis. We want also to thank Professor Jack Holbrook for his precious help in the final proofreading.

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  1. Science Education Centre, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Jérémy Castéra

  2. S2HEP, Université Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France

    Jérémy Castéra & Pierre Clément

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Castéra, J., Clément, P. Teachers’ Conceptions About the Genetic Determinism of Human Behaviour: A Survey in 23 Countries. Sci & Educ 23, 417–443 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-012-9494-0

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