The Nature of (School) Knowledge and Its Implications for Science Education: A Case Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Queer and Indigenous Perspectives on Science Education

Abstract

While our understandings of the nature of knowledge may seem to imply a more socially activist role for teachers, we would like to argue instead that these epistemological understandings may have left out a vital difference between the knowledges of science and the practices of scientists. Also, there are significant differences in the knowledges used by producers (‘laboratory science’) and learners (‘school science’) such that a rethink of the distinction between school and non-school knowledges may be necessary. A case study was conducted to document the environmental education practices of three teachers. We found an alternative theoretical model to explain our observations, and to cause a rethink of the role and position of activism in and through science education.

Authors

• Michael Tan, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Erminia G. Pedretti, OISE/University of Toronto