Tao, Oliver, and Venville's paper addresses a debate between two hypotheses of children's development of conceptual understandings of the Earth. The authors aim to investigate whether culture influences students' conceptions of the Earth. However, one questionable assumption shared among conception and conceptual change studies is that researchers…

A growing body of teacher identity-based research has begun to embrace that the development of self-understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach. Construction of a professional teacher identity requires much more beyond mere content, skills and a foundational pedagogy. It also includes an intersection of the personal…

Studies across fields such as science education, health education, health behavior, and curriculum studies identify a persistent gap between the aims of the school curriculum and its impact on students' thinking and acting about the real-life decisions that affect their lives. The present study presents a different story from this predominant…

Epistemological constructions are central considerations in vivisecting an expressed conflict between science and religion. It is argued that the conflict thesis is only meaningful when examined from a specific socio-historical perspective. The dialectical relation between science and religion should therefore be considered at both a macro and…

This paper extends the conversation started by Patti Lather in her forum response to "Neoliberal ideology, global capitalism, and science education: engaging the question of subjectivity", in terms of engaging the thought of Jacques Ranciere. Ranciere can offer (science) educators a more definitive example of (possible) emancipatory political…

This commentary considers two lines of inquiry into the work of Ideland and Malmberg: the role of discourse in shaping teachers' responses to Roberts' (2011) Visions of Science and the moral imperatives that will accompany any shifts between Vision I and II. Vision I of science has accreted to itself great power and prestige, both of which shape…

I narrate a process of transformation, a professional and personal journey framed by an experience that captured my attention shaping my interpretation and reflections. From a critical complexity framework I discuss the emergence of a learning community from the cooperation among individuals of diverse social and cultural worlds sharing the need…

In our forum contribution to Federica Raia's manuscript (2012) on learning at the boundaries, we propose that using radical listening in the science education classroom, especially when contentious issues such as evolution are discussed, helps stakeholders learn from each other's values and viewpoints and contributes to bridging divides.

In this paper I discuss three issues relevant to the ideas introduced by Colucci-Gray, Perazzone, Dodman and Camino (2012) in their three-part paper on epistemological reflections and educational practice for science education for sustainability: (1) social studies of science for science education, (2) education for sustainability or sustainable…

The aim of this research is to understand how former students view their professional and academic paths after taking part in a specific scientific nonformal educational initiative during high school. This program is called Vocational Scientific Program (Provoc) and is carried out in the Oswald Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.…

This paper presents a critical analysis of student discourse on attrition as it unfolds in interviews on early departure from higher education. A synthesis of relevant studies and modelling done in the field shows that essential aspects affecting attrition and retention can be effectively conceptualized and acted upon in terms of the interplay…

A college science education instructor tells his students he rejects evolution. What should we think? The scene unfolds in one of the largest urban centers in the world. If we are surprised, why? Expanding on Federica Raia's (2012) first-hand experience with this scenario, I broaden her discussion by considering the complexity of science education…

In this three-part article we seek to establish connections between the emerging framework of "sustainability science" and the methodological basis of research and practice in science education in order to bring forth knowledge and competences for sustainability. The first and second parts deal with the implications of taking a sustainability view…

This paper initiates a forum for Malin Ideland and Claes Malmberg's article titled "Body talk--students' identity construction while discussing a socioscientific issue." Ideland and Malmberg explore issues of health and body through teachers' use of a pedagogical approach that foregrounds exploration of a socioscientific issue. This paper explores…

This design experiment aimed to answer the question of how to mediate the practices of authentic science inquiries in primary education. An instructional approach based on activity theory was designed and carried out with multi-age students in a small village school. An open-ended learning task was offered to the older students. Their task was to…