M. Michael et al., TEACHING BIOTECHNOLOGY - IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF IGNORANCE AND KNOWLEDGEABILITY, Public understanding of science, 6(1), 1997, pp. 1-17
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Communication,"History & Philosophy of Sciences","History & Philosophy of Sciences
This paper considers the sorts of identities constructed by biotechnol
ogy teachers for themselves, biotechnology and their students. Drawing
upon insights from critical studies of the public understanding of sc
ience, we analyse teachers' views on biotechnology and the teaching of
it. These views were partly derived from questionnaires and participa
nt observation, though our main source of data were focus group discus
sions. Our analysis shows that the teachers held ambivalent views abou
t their role and biotechnology. For example, on the one hand, science
and biotechnology are 'impure' in the sense of being part of the messy
world of politics and ethics. Within this controversial domain, the t
eachers saw their role as one of assuring 'balance' in which the stude
nts are exposed to both pro and con dimensions of biotechnology. On th
e other hand, science and biotechnology are 'pure', part of an idealiz
ed realm in which useful scientific knowledge is produced. Biotechnolo
gy thus was 'intellectually interesting in its own right'. We suggest
that such ambivalence is not necessarily a problem, reflecting broader
social trends.