Investigações em Ensino de Ciências (Apr 2018)
Perspectives of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge and Science Education: a study of Education Journals
Abstract
Despite the fact that Science Teaching emphasizes the importance of researches in Epistemology and History of Science and also covers social aspects of the scientific construction, there are still relatively very few studies which are systematically based on perspectives from the Sociology of Science or from the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. In this article, it has been outlined a brief history of the sociological perspectives of scientific knowledge, characterizing them as differentiationist, antidifferentiationist and tranversalist. Then, a bibliographical study was developed in journals Qualis A1 and A2 in the area of “Teaching” of CAPES, with emphasis in Science Teaching, from 2007 to 2016, aiming to understand how the sociological perspectives are present in science education. The search for articles which articulate sociological aspects and Science Education was done through use of search engines emerging from the accomplished historic, among them: Sociology of Science, Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, Ethnography, Laboratory Studies, Strong Program, Scientific Fields, Scientific Ethos, Actor-Network Theory, Social and Technical Networks, Latour, Bloor, Merton and Bourdieu. Through this research, we have identified 46 articles which have approaches with the subject. The articles were investigated by Content Analysis and were organized in the units of analysis: 1) Foundations of the sociology of knowledge; 2) Scientific Ethos; 3) Science Working System; 4) Sociogenesis of knowledge; 5) Strong Program of Sociology of Knowledge; 6) Laboratory studies and scientific practice; 7) Actor-Network Theory; 8) Bourdieusian Rationale; 9) Non-Bourdieusian tranversalist approaches; 10) Notes regarding the Sociology of Science. The units of analysis with the greatest number of articles were "Laboratory Studies and Scientific Practice" and "Actor-Network Theory", both closer to an antidifferentiationist perspective of the sociology of science, in which the boundaries between science and its surroundings are diluted. Furthermore, although there is a restricted number of authors and texts, the survey has showed that there is a diversity of research objects and methodological strategies in the analyzed papers in order to promote the dialogue among Sociology of Science/Sociology of Scientific Knowledge and Science Education.
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