Everyday School Life and Social Justice in Inquiry-Based Science Teaching: Practices, Interactions and Epistemic Agency

Abstract

This article discusses how perspectives on social justice can constitute everyday pedagogical practices in Science Education, even when it is not explicitly thematized. Based on a theoretical approach anchored in Fraser's conception of social justice and the concept of epistemic agency, we analyze two activities developed in high school biology classes based on the methodology inquiry-based science teaching. The first activity is guided by a socio-scientific issue related to gender injustice in sports and the second is guided by an inquiry question about the population dynamics of an aquatic plant species. By analyzing the discursive interactions among students in these two classroom situations, we can show that both can promote experiences of social justice as a process. We argue that the promotion of epistemic agency and dialogical learning environments contribute to the deconstruction of institutional mechanisms that construct and reinforce power relations that attempt to dehumanize certain groups of people in the classroom. We discuss the importance of a commitment to social justice in Science Education, involving attention to both the selection of themes and the forms of participation and collective construction of knowledge in everyday school life.