The present shock and time re-appropriation: rethinking science education in the pandemic era
The crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic is so huge that raises enormous questions about its implications for our societies and personal lives. In this article, we focus on science education and the role it can play to prepare future generations to grapple with this complex, fast-changing and fragile society. The approach we chose is centered on the concept of time, whose perception and organisation has been deeply affected by pandemic-induced changes. An exploratory qualitative study has been carried out with secondary school students to investigate how they were experiencing time during lockdown and which (if any) scientific knowledge they were activating to grapple with the current uncertainty and change in time structures.
The main result concerns the discovery of the potential of the dichotomy between alienation from time and time re-appropriation to highlight the difference between future shock, (characteristic of the pre-crisis society of acceleration) and present shock (characteristic of the pandemic era). The analysis of students’ interviews allowed us to start unpacking time re-appropriation and its links with science learning and identity development.
On the basis of the analysis, we identified three directions that science education research could explore to support schools and science teaching in playing a leading role in this fast-changing society. The directions concern new thematic and epistemological priorities for science curricula, new emphasis on learning and teaching rituals fostering appropriation, and arguments for revising the institutional role of schools.
Posted 08 Jun, 2020
On 25 Sep, 2020
The present shock and time re-appropriation: rethinking science education in the pandemic era
Posted 08 Jun, 2020
On 25 Sep, 2020
The crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic is so huge that raises enormous questions about its implications for our societies and personal lives. In this article, we focus on science education and the role it can play to prepare future generations to grapple with this complex, fast-changing and fragile society. The approach we chose is centered on the concept of time, whose perception and organisation has been deeply affected by pandemic-induced changes. An exploratory qualitative study has been carried out with secondary school students to investigate how they were experiencing time during lockdown and which (if any) scientific knowledge they were activating to grapple with the current uncertainty and change in time structures.
The main result concerns the discovery of the potential of the dichotomy between alienation from time and time re-appropriation to highlight the difference between future shock, (characteristic of the pre-crisis society of acceleration) and present shock (characteristic of the pandemic era). The analysis of students’ interviews allowed us to start unpacking time re-appropriation and its links with science learning and identity development.
On the basis of the analysis, we identified three directions that science education research could explore to support schools and science teaching in playing a leading role in this fast-changing society. The directions concern new thematic and epistemological priorities for science curricula, new emphasis on learning and teaching rituals fostering appropriation, and arguments for revising the institutional role of schools.