Biology Teachers’ Conceptions About the Origin of Life in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Teachers’ conceptions about the origin of life in three Latin American countries with contrasting levels of secularism were analyzed: Argentina (Catholic constitution), Brazil (formally secular but not in practice), and Uruguay (consolidated secularism). A European survey questionnaire was used and the interpretation of the results drew on Barbour's four categories concerning the relationships of science and religion. A large majority of Argentinian and Uruguayan teachers were clearly evolutionist, even when believing in God (Independence or Dialogue category), with no difference between Argentina and Uruguay. The majority of Brazilian teachers assumed a religious position about the origin of life, being creationist (Conflict or Independence categories) or evolutionary creationist (Dialogue or Integration categories). Differences of Brazilian teachers’ conceptions may result from the higher percentage of evangelicals and lower proportion of agnostics/atheists. Brazilian Catholic teachers were more creationist than their Catholic colleagues in Argentina and Uruguay. Distinct patterns were found, but further research is needed to understand possible classroom impacts.

Biology teachers’ conceptions of Humankind Origin across secular and religious countries: an international comparison

“…Humankind origin has been taught in Uruguayan schools since the nineteenth century, but with a more positivist bias and less from a religious perspective (Glick 2001). The few previous studies on Uruguayan teachers and the teaching of evolution confirm that the religious question does not pervade the Darwinian theory teaching (Silva et al 2017(Silva et al , 2019.…”

Teachers' Perceptions about the Etiology of Intelligence and Learning Difficulties

“…Although recent discourses have been considering the processes of learning and school outcomes as something beyond cognitive abilities (Abed, 2016), the educational system remains to privilege such abilities through standardized assessment. Human cognitive abilities have historically been attributed more to genetic factors than to environmental factors (Gould, 1996;Snyderman & Rothman, 1988), and these, in turn, were considered immutable by various social groups (Castera & Clement, 2014;Gould, 1996;Keller, 2005;Rattan, Savani, Naidu & Dweck, 2012;Thomas & Sarnecka, 2015;Willoughby et al, 2019) The Brazilian teachers' conceptions about origin and evolution of life are more creationist than the teachers' conceptions in other Latin American countries, like Argentina and Uruguay, for example (Silva, Clément, Leão, Garros, & Carvalho, 2017). Such conception may be related to deterministic beliefs.…”