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Science education and cultural diversity: Freire’s concept of dialogue as theoretical lens to study the classroom discourse of science teachers

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Abstract

For a long time within the history of education, it has been assumed that science classrooms are homogeneous spaces, constituted with the prevailing conception that only scientific culture can be represented. At the same time, Latin America is characterized by being a region with enormous biological and cultural diversity, with an invaluable biocultural heritage. Building on an interpretative hermeneutical analysis of science teachers’ discourses from Brazil and Colombia, we explore the potential of science education to engage with the cultural diversity in science classrooms through the lens of Freire’s concept of dialogue. Developing the concept of intercultural dialogue, we identify the teachers’ conceptions about the nature of science (NOS), and how they perceive the relationship between scientific and nonscientific knowledge that students bring with them in the process of science teaching and learning. This approach denotes potential tensions and challenges to incorporating and interpreting different knowledge, but it is a necessary process in the development of an emancipatory intercultural, non-dualist, nonhierarchical education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Unidad Monterrey, Monterrey, México

    Gonzalo Peñaloza

  2. Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia

    Jairo Robles-Piñeros

  3. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Cadas, Bogotá, Colombia

    Jairo Robles-Piñeros

  4. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil

    Geilsa Costa Santos Baptista

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  1. Gonzalo Peñaloza
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  2. Jairo Robles-Piñeros
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  3. Geilsa Costa Santos Baptista
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Correspondence to Gonzalo Peñaloza.

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This manuscript is a part of the special issue Reflecting on Freire: A praxis of radical love and critical hope for science education, guest edited by Betzabe Torres Olave, Sara Tolbert, and Alejandra Frausto Aceves.

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Peñaloza, G., Robles-Piñeros, J. & Baptista, G.C.S. Science education and cultural diversity: Freire’s concept of dialogue as theoretical lens to study the classroom discourse of science teachers. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 18, 95–114 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10158-3

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