Barbara Bader

Interpretation d'une controverse scientifique : Strategies argumentatives d'adolescentes et d'adolescents quebecois

RésuméActualiser la rhétorique scolaire courante sur les sciences et en présenter une vision plus controversée constitue un enjeu éducatif important en vue de préparer les jeunes du secondaire à débattre de manière éclairée autour d’enjeux sociotechniques contemporains. Pour documenter la manière dont de jeunes québécois et québécoises argumentent autour d’une vision socialisée des sciences, nous avons demandé à sept groupes de trois sujets d’interpréter un débat polémique entre deux scientifiques autour de la question du réchauffement climatique planétaire. Nous présentons dans cet article des extraits de l’analyse argumentative de l’un de ces entretiens. Ces jeunes se sont montrés capables de discuter de questions d’épistémologie et de sociologie de sciences. La conception réaliste et empùïste qui oriente leurs discours sur les sciences rend cependant difficilement admissible l’existence même du désaccord en question. Certains moments de complexification conceptuelle ont cependant émergé en cours de discussion, ce qui nous permet de penser que le type de vignette utilisé dans cette recherche pourrait être transposé en classe afin d’initier des discussions fécondes autour de matières controversées en sciences. De la même manière, les outils d’analyse argumentative mis en oeuvre pourraient être réinvestis avec des élèves pour cerner certaines idées courantes sur les sciences et en questionner la légitimité, favorisant ainsi le développement d’un regard plus averti sur ces dernières.Executive SummaryThis research is devoted to the argumentative strategies deployed by graduating high school students in Quebec who had been given the task of interpreting a polemic between two researchers. As part of conducting this project and in keeping with the favoured socio-constructivist position on cognition, these young people were considered as full-fledged social actors, capable of speaking out for and arguing their points of view. Seven small groups of students (triads) were asked to deliberate over a controversy between two researchers on the issue of global warming. The students had to read a written debate, several pages long, whose controversial arguments were identified beforehand (the scientists in question disagreed on research priorities). More precisely, the subjects had the task of providing the reasons that, where applicable, had led them to think that there was in fact a disagreement between the two scientists. The analysis of their conversations was based on a pragmatic conception of language. Language was viewed as a situated practice that serves as much to maintain as to negotiate whatever is held to be reality in a given context. The research serves to locate the argumentative strategies prioritized and used by subjects to put forward their interpretation of a controversy.The present article sketches out the argumentative strategies used by three seventeen-year-old boys to interpret the disagreement presented to them. Our analysis shows that the youths were inclined to adduce current ideas about science, framed according to a realist, empiricist epistemology. Despite this tendency (which makes it difficult to even conceive of the notion of scientific controversy as a locus of the social production of facts), one of the subjects held a more marginal position during the discussion. For example, he questioned the authority with which scientists are generally accredited, and occasionally referred to epistemological considerations linked to the production of scientific knowledge as a basis for challenging their credibility. Similar arguments could be noted during a second debate. Thus, in light of the lengthy discourse on epistemology and sociology of science apparent in both of the conversations analyzed, there are grounds for thinking that high school youths would be capable of actualizing their way of seeing the social character of science; scenarios similar to those presented here could serve as a teaching tool from this perspective. The analytical tools used in this research could also be useful during classroom discussions of contemporary sociotechnical issues and to develop a certain contemplation of the relevance of current ideas about science. Consequently, these youths could be persuaded to adopt a more informed view of the sociotechnical controversies characterizing our societies and to engage with others in a process of democratizing technoscience.

Questions and positions on education for sustainable development at university in France: example of short professional cycles?

The questions focus on the emergence of education for sustainable development in the French university. The case study discusses the curricular examination of the Bachelor of Territory Professional Planning in 17 universities and the diachronic evolution, between 2001 and 2011, of their educational content around sustainable development. The analysis leads to a reflection on the specificity of French contexts, compared to international positions. Indeed, the legitimacy of the education provided is queried against the economization of the educational sphere. Didactic problems are posed by the reduction of distances between social practices and knowledge mobilized for the teachings. The evolution of the ‘school form’ and the specific place of ‘educations for’ in the framework of the institution are questioned.

Activism in Science and Environmental Education: Renewing Conceptions About Science Among Students When Considering Socioscientific Issues

This chapter’s aim is to highlight the importance of critical pedagogy for activism in science and environmental education, notably an «education for awareness» regarding the dominant ideologies and the instrumental rationality related to climate change. We tried to apply some of these principles at high school level, with French speaking students in Quebec, to question and enhance their conceptions of the nature of science, by inviting them to document issues on climate change, including uncertainties, controversies and research practices. We also present some results about their civic engagement on climate change.

Epistemological Renewal and Environmental Education: Science in Context.

The instrumental relationship to nature and the realist epistemology that dominate the analysis of contemporary environmental issues have prompted me to develop an interest in a socialized conception of science in environmental education (EE) so as to throw into question a certain overappreciation of scientific expertise whenever the environment is at issue. This interest in an epistemological renewal has also impelled me to favour the socioconstructivist model of cognition in EE. The relevance of these various aspects is presented to the reader as the extension of a necessary epistemological renewal in EE, as various authors in this field of research have advocated.