Constitution of Nature in Nature of Science Teaching Practices

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-20 - Exploring the Nature of Science: Student Understanding and Teachers' Practices

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnographic study on epistemological constitution of nature by nine Grade 9 and 10 Academic Science teachers. Critical Discourse Analysis and general inductive analysis were performed on interview transcripts, texts related to teaching science selected by participants, and policy documents (i.e. curriculum; assessment policy) that coordinate science teacher practice. Epistemological constitutions of nature were enacted through practices that engaged students in manipulating nature; controlling nature, and dominating nature. Dominant constitutions generally assume nature is simply the material to study, from which scientific knowledge can be obtained, with little ethical or moral consideration about nature itself, or how these constitutions produce discourse and relationships that may be detrimental to nature.

Author

• Darren Glen Hoeg, University of Alberta