Nature of Science for Social Justice: Why, What and How?

Abstract

“Nature of Science” (NOS) and “Social Justice” (SJ) are vivid areas in contemporary science education research. There are different conceptualizations of NOS and SJ, giving rise to divergent research agendas. NOS and SJ research areas have mostly been separate tracks, with only a few contributions across each other. The aim of this volume is to bring NOS and SJ research closer together, explore possibilities that might arise, and start a dialogue on the characteristics of NOS for SJ. In this chapter, we prioritize SJ as an overall aim of science education and shed light on how NOS teaching can contribute to that aim. We argue for the importance of three questions: Why should a school science aiming for SJ address NOS? What NOS-related content, skills and attitudes form the basis when aiming for SJ? How can school science address NOS for SJ? The goal of the dialogue around these three broad questions is to develop a research base for NOS teaching aimed towards SJ. In this chapter, we initiate this dialogue, which is then continued in the chapters that follow. We also provide an overview of the volume and identify some of the main arguments that the authors make as they embark upon this dialogue.