Putting Sociology First—Reconsidering the Role of the Social in ‘Nature of Science’ Education

Abstract

Contrasting two examples from 2005, a creationism-trial and a recent textbook, the article shows two different ways of employing social considerations to demarcate science from non-science. Drawing conclusions from the comparison, and citing some of the leading proponents of science studies, the paper argues for a novel perspective in teaching nature of science (NOS) issues, one that grows out of sociological and anthropological considerations of (scientific) expertise. In contrast to currently dominant epistemic approaches to teach NOS, this view makes it possible to incorporate epistemic and social norms in a unified framework that can alleviate presently problematic aspects of NOS modules, and can help students appreciate science as a privileged form of knowledgeproduction without becoming scientistic. A pilot module to carry out the above is presented and assessed, showing that a broad sociological starting point is closer to the lifeworld of students, and that traditional epistemic considerations need not be compromised.The paper argues for the embedding of epistemic goals in Nature of Science (NOS) education in a sociological framework (Sect. 5), and describes as well as evaluates one such module (Sects. 6, 7). Before outlining the objectives and the rationales for this approach, however, I will show that sociological considerations play an increased role in court decisions concerning the status of creationism (Sect. 1), and that recent textbooks fail to utilise this asset when teaching NOS (Sect. 2). Although in the science education literature sociological approaches elicited little positive response (Sect. 3), recent trends in science studies and in the sociology of science provide frameworks which display an attitude towards science that should be welcome even by researchers and educators who stress traditional considerations in NOS (Sect. 4).

Reconceptualizing nature‐of‐science education in the age of social media

“…The body of collective knowledge is thus distributed across various domains in society (Luhmann, 1977). That distribution of expertise poses challenges for how knowledge is shared, or communicated, both between experts and from experts to nonexperts (Goodman, 2014; Zemplén, 2009). Science is one of the domains of expertise—crudely, knowledge of the physical world, its organization and causal structure, accessible through empirical investigation 2 .…”

Social and Rational: The Presentation of Nature of Science and the Uptake of Change in Evolution Textbooks

“…Zemplén () warns that stressing the social aspects of NOS does not mean “relinquishing the hope of demarcating science from non‐science and endorsing relativism.” He posits that beginning instruction about NOS from a social standpoint is more relevant to how students view the interaction of science and society. Ironically, perpetuating a value‐free view of science can be an impediment to the multi‐, inter‐ and transdisciplinary collaborative science that is characteristic of our times (Lélé & Norgaard, ).…”

“…For example, women engineering students at Smith College successfully apply thermodynamics to everyday life, explicitly engage with ethics in assignments, examine contributions by underrepresented groups, explore non-Western approaches to thermodynamics, and incorporate information about the history and philosophy in science into their understanding of engineering principles (Riley, 2003). Zemplén (2009) warns that stressing the social aspects of NOS does not mean "relinquishing the hope of demarcating science from non-science and endorsing relativism." He posits that beginning instruction about NOS from a social standpoint is more relevant to how students view the interaction of science and society.…”

Scientific Experts and the Controversy About Teaching Creation/Evolution in the UK Press

“…However, it is at least theoretically possible that the representation of academic science education experts would have led to the representation of different images of science and what should be taught about it. A look into the science education research literature shows that many academic science education experts see the value of teaching (the nature of) controversy and socio-scientific issues in order to get a better understanding of how science works in practice and in context (e.g., Reiss 1993;Jenkins 1997Jenkins , 1999Millar 1997;Ratcliffe and Grace 2003;Oulton et al 2004;Zemplén 2007). Scientific experts and experts in science education can have very different ideas about the purposes of science education, for instance in terms of scientific citizenship and participation in science (Moran 2007).…”