Rahan scientifique : enquête épistémologique et didactique sur un héros de la culture populaire 

Abstract

A whole generation of children who read the magazine Pif Gadget learned there the five famous humanist virtues of its prehistoric hero and role-model, Rahan. They might also have learned a certain relationship to the understanding of natural phenomena, in what sometimes seems to be akin to a scientific approach. But does it really make any sense to talk about science here? In this article, we propose to characterize Rahan’s relationship with science through an epistemological approach based on a set of criteria of scientificity adapted to school science. The pedagogical exploitation of the inaugural episode, The Secret of the Sun, in cycle 3 and with primary school teachers in training, will then exemplify and illustrate the benefits of developing starting situations for investigative approaches based on extracts from Rahan’s adventures.

Keywords

• comic book
• training
• teacher
• science
• epistemology
• school