Science and technological innovations as drivers for educational change : Teachers' perspectives of an inquiry-based project into the unknown

Abstract

This study started in connection to two similar parallel on-going Teacher Development Programs (TPDs) in Sweden, within the PARRISE-project (2014-2017). It is a project funded by EU, where 18 universities from eleven countries cooperate to explore and develop ways to address political and ethical questions in science education, with starting point from Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), embracing the SSIBL framework (cf. Levinson 2016). Preliminary results shows how teachers from the TPDs formulated mutual and competing aims concerning the role of science education regarding how to address the knowledge base of science in relation to new relatively uncertain areas. This is done in relation to innovation processes and their products as for example nanotechnology. Critical thinking and awareness of ignorance were formulated as important tools for a scientific literacy discourse of a more humbled view of knowledge production, connected to science research and innovation, and identifying conflicting interest from different actors.