I was immediately excited when I discovered that I could potentially engage in chemistry education research which involved students thinking about socio-scientific issues. It has so much potential. The K-12 science education literature for has been speaking about such efforts. More broadly some literature recommends centering units around phenomenon in project-based learning, or more specifically in which students engage in what I would classify as a Freirean problem-posing education, in which units center social justice science issues with the explicitly purpose of disrupting systems of oppression (Freire, 1968; Krajcik & Shin, 2014; Morales-Doyle, 2017). I am not exactly investigating that, although I would love to bring such lenses to future studies.

JLs

“I believe that (the) educational process has two sides—one psychological and one sociological” … “Profound differences in theory are never gratuitous or invented. They grow out of conflicting elements in a genuine problem.” John Dewey, In Dworkin, M. (1959) Dewey on Education pp. 20, 91.

References

Freire, Paulo. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press.

Krajcik, J. S., & Shin, N. (2014). Project-Based Learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (2nd ed., pp. 275–297). Cambridge University Press; Cambridge Core. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139519526.018

Morales-Doyle, D. (2017). Justice-centered science pedagogy: A catalyst for academic achievement and social transformation. Science Education, 101(6), 1034–1060. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21305