Does Research on Nature of Science and Social Justice Intersect? Exploring Theoretical and Practical Convergence for Sci
Even though enhancement of students’ understanding of social justice is thought to contribute to good citizenship, contextualising social justice in science education remains challenging for teachers because social justice is not conventionally a common f
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Does Research on Nature of Science and Social Justice Intersect? Exploring Theoretical and Practical Convergence for Science Education Sibel Erduran, Ebru Kaya, and Lucy Avraamidou
6.1 Introduction The rise in inequality in the distribution of income among people is well-documented and displays the characteristics of a trend, having affected large numbers of countries, from the poorest to the most affluent (United Nations 2006). The inequality gap between the richest and poorest countries, measured in terms of national per capita income, is growing as well. Concurrently, new socio-political realities caused by the massive migration of refugees to Europe and the urgency for including refugee children into society. In 2017 UNHCR registered 172,301 sea arrivals of refugees and migrants, mainly from Nigeria and the Syrian Arab Republic, to Europe. In the first 6 months of 2017, 16% of all arrivals were children, 72% of which were unaccompanied and separated children (UNHCR et al. 2017). UNICEF reports show that children are increasingly showing signs of deep psychological trauma as a result of their suffering and displacement and are excluded from the communities they now live. These new sociopolitical realities and the rise in poverty in all its manifestations, along with the increase in the numbers of refugees, displaced persons and other victims of circumstance and abuse, represent sufficient evidence for a judgment of persistent, if not growing, injustice in the world. Addressing such S. Erduran (*) Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK e-mail: [email protected] E. Kaya Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] L. Avraamidou Institute for Science Education and Communication, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 H. A. Yacoubian, L. Hansson (eds.), Nature of Science for Social Justice, Science: Philosophy, History and Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47260-3_6
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injustice at different levels and areas creates new challenges for education in general and science education in particular, that centre around goals related to social justice. The theme of social justice as an intellectual theme is relatively new: None of history’s great philosophers—not Plato or Aristotle, or Confucius or Averroes, or even Rousseau or Kant—saw the need to consider justice or the redress of injustices from a social perspective. The concept first surfaced in Western thought and political language in the wake of the industrial revolution and the parallel development of the socialist doctrine. It emerged as an expression of protest against what was perceived as the capitalist exploitation of labour and as a focal point for the development of measures to improve the human condition. It was born as a revolutionary slogan embodying the ideals of progress and fraternity. Following the revolutions that shook Europe in
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