Summary:
The aim of this paper is to highlight the characteristics of teaching science with social justice for a goal, as defined by the critical pedagogy movement in recent decades.
This study focuses on the content and methodology of science teaching, i.e. "what" should be taught within science courses and "how", in the light of critical education. The aim is to bring together key socio-scientific issues, which should serve either as a stimulus of interest or as the central focus of the problem-solving course. Those being: environmental crisis and climate change, health literacy, diversity and social exclusion, ethical issues in science, history and nature of science and pseudoscience. The importance of the role of the teacher, methodological features and teaching practices will be outlined, with emphasis on issues of multiculturalism, scientific language, and democratization of the learning process.
The results of this bibliographic research tend to demonstrate the multifactorial and complex nature of science teaching, as well as the need for the implementation of collaborative inquiry learning. Furthermore, it supports the assumption that scientific knowledge is influenced by the socio-cultural context in which it is formed and the subjective and objective difficulties that a teacher may face in the teaching practice. Finally, the chief conclusion of this paper is that scientific literacy is a prerequisite for the creation of a society aiming for social justice.
"What are the factors that may influence the teaching of science in general?", "In what ways can a teacher manage the discussion of sensitive socio-scientific issues?", "How have neoliberal policies of specialization of the scientific knowledge and the conflation of science, technology and industry affected students' perception of scientific knowledge?" are some of the questions that this thesis seeks to address.
Keywords:
critical education and science, science teaching, science and social justice, socio-scientific issues, democratization of the course, problem solving
