Ensino de ciências para os cinco domínios do letramento científico: um processo educacional à luz da pedagogia histórico-crítica

Abstract

Knowing that the development of Scientific Literacy (SL) has been consolidated as an objective of science teaching, this work presents an investigation that sought to identify the problems in achieving this objective in elementary and high school. It also presents a proposal for an educational process that would contribute to resolving the gaps identified. Initially, the paper discusses how the term culture acquires different meanings in relation to science. The aim was to delineate the space of scientific culture and, within this, the cultural dimension of science. This dimension was important for understanding the SL. To do this, we used authors who think about culture and science from a historical and philosophical point of view, as well as a bibliographical survey on the cultural dimension of science. It was possible to establish parallels between the frameworks that delimit culture and science in contemporary times and, in this way, outline the space of the cultural dimension of science, contributing to a better understanding of this concept. From this initial discussion, the need arose to understand how sociocultural elements have broadened the meaning of SL and how this change has been realized in classroom practice. Thus, through a systematic literature review, we investigated the dimensions and indicators of scientific literacy present in articles in the area. Critical pedagogical theories support our theoretical approach, and the determination of the current domains of scientific literacy took place through discursive textual analysis. We found that pedagogical approaches to scientific literacy prioritize elements of scientific production to the detriment of sociocultural ones, although there are domains and indicators in the literature that collaborate for practices connected with the social context. We conclude that the imbalance in the development of scientific literacy domains leads to a departure from the critical character of its theoretical conceptualization. We also concluded that, although cultural, attitudinal and ideological elements indicate scientific literacy in a concrete sense, they can assume a liberal bias if they focus only on individual skills in the subject's daily practice. Continuing the investigation, we sought to identify how the elements (i) ideology, (ii) culture and (iii) scientific knowledge correlate in the configuration of the subjects' Attitudinal Profile (4). Based on the literature review already carried out, we developed a theoretical model to correlate the variables of interest. Subsequently, we tested the model by applying a questionnaire to 182 high school and college students and employed structural equation modeling to analyze the gathered data. The result revealed that the proposed model fitted the data well. However, alternative models excluding the 'scientific knowledge' variable displayed superior fit indices. Consequently, we concluded that this variable holds lesser influence compared to 'ideology' and 'culture' in shaping subjects' stances on socio-scientific issues. This suggests that expanding attention to such aspects of science is necessary for the development of scientific literacy, enabling it to manifest in shaping subjects' attitudes in practical life and in society. Faced with a solid conception of SL and aware of the obstacles encountered to its full development, the research focused on Historical-Critical Pedagogy and Historical and Dialectical Materialism, turning them into theoretical references for the development of an educational process that would help overcome the problems encountered in the development of SL. The educational process "Science teaching for the five domains of scientific literacy" emerged from the application of the materialist-dialectical method, analysis and synthesis of contradictory categories, on the domains of scientific literacy described in the systematic literature review. The results culminated in the thesis that there are two antagonistic and complementary poles of SL, one scientific/objective and the other sociocultural/subjective. The tension between the poles results in a synthesis, which manifests itself in the Affective/Attitudinal domain of SL. Based on this understanding and on the didactics of Historical-Critical Pedagogy, the educational process developed proposes to mimic the dialogic movement characteristic of historical and dialectical materialism in science teaching, so that the curricular content assumes the objective pole, while socio-scientific, historical and cultural problems assume the subjective pole of SL. With each new content, there is a new production of meanings about scientific knowledge, with the potential to qualitatively transform the ways in which students perceive and act in their concrete reality, moving towards overcoming the gap between learning science and using scientific knowledge as a resource for improving the quality of life, in both the private and social aspects.