WISE preservice teachers discussing social and economic disparities during a discussion game dealing with nanotechnologies


Chapitre de livre

Contributeurs:

État de publication: Publiée (2017 ,11 Juillet )

Titre du livre: Science and Technology Education Promoting Wellbeing for Individuals, Societies and Environments

Éditeur: Springer

Lieu: Dordrecht, Pays-Bas

Volume:

Intervalle de pages: 555-564

ISBN: 978-3-319-55505-8

Résumé: STEPWISE is a pedagogical framework that aims to encourage students and teachers to think of science and technology education as a way of fostering the well-being of individuals, societies and environments—and take action to this end. ‘Decide’ is a group discussion game published under a Creative Commons License. It broadly shares STEPWISE orientations, as it invites participants to inquire, discuss and take positions on a socio-technical controversy, such as xenotransplantation, stem cells or neuroscience, in the context of a discussion conducted democratically. STEPWISE and Decide also share the aim of encouraging students to reflect on the way economic relationships play out in techno-science. In this chapter, we first present the game, outlining its main features and ways to integrate it into a STEPWISE approach in the science and technology classroom. We then show how two groups of preservice teachers expressed their views on social and economic disparities during a game session focusing on the progression and management of controversies surrounding the development and commercialization of nanotechnologies. More specifically, we present excerpts of conversations in which these participants discussed limited access to the products and services that allow people to benefit from nanotechnologies—in particular, those aimed at slowing down the aging process—the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of these technologies, the risk of offshoring factories and exploiting child labour, and the development of medical treatments—especially cancer treatments—for profit.

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