Climate Change and Everyday Life: Repertoires children use to negotiate a socio-scientific issue

Abstract

There are only a few studies about how primary school students engage in socio-scientific discussions. This study aims to add to this field of research by focusing on how 9-10 year olds in Sweden and England handle climate change as a complex environmental socio-scientific issue, within the context of their own lives and in relation to society at large. It focuses on how different interpretative repertoires were used by the students in discussions to legitimise or question their everyday lifestyles. They discussed four possible options that a government might consider to help reduce carbon dioxide production. Six main repertoires were identified: Everyday life, Self-Interest, Environment, Science and Technology, Society and Justice. The Everyday life repertoire was used when students related their discussion to their everyday lifestyles. Science and technology-related solutions were offered to maintain or improve things, but these were sometimes rather unrealistic.Arguments related to environment and health frequently appeared to have a superior status compared to the others. Findings also highlighted how conflicts between the students were actually productive by bringing in several perspectives to negotiate the solutions. These primary school students were therefore able to discuss and negotiate a complex real-world socio-scientific issue.Students positioned themselves as active contributors to society, using their life experiences and limited knowledge to understand the problems that affected their everyday lives. Honing these skills within a school science community of practice could facilitate primary students' engagement with socio-scientific issues and empower them as citizens.

Students’ Positioning in the Classroom: a Study of Teacher-Student Interactions in a Socioscientific Issue Context

“…Several students voiced personal concerns, for example, how they might personally suffer from the consequences of climate change. This result is in line with previous research, which shows that personal concerns are important for many people when dealing with SSI (Bell and Lederman 2003;Byrne et al 2014;Patronis et al 1999;Sadler and Zeidler 2004). On the other hand, the teacher positioned the students as spectators to societal debate and decision-making on SSI, by positioning experts and authorities as the agents responsible for change.…”

“…Specifically, dealing with SSI calls for recognizing the students' perspectives on the issues. This is because, for people of various ages and levels of education, from primary school pupils (Byrne et al 2014) to high school students (Patronis et al 1999), university students (Sadler and Zeidler 2004), and university professors and research assistants (Bell and Lederman 2003), decisions on SSI are often influenced by moral, personal and social considerations. Furthermore, recognition of students' perspectives on SSI is important if we agree that Bscience education ought to encourage learners to develop a sense of having something to say about these issues and to see themselves as legitimate participants in social dialogues, particularly those which involve science^ (Sadler 2009, p. 12-13).…”

Science|Environment|Health – the emergence of a new pedagogy of complex living systems

“…Some S|E|H researchers emphasise that health and sustainable development should be considered as both science and social science issues. Health and sustainable development involve, as do other socio-scientific issues, both descriptive knowledge and normative values (Byrne, Ideland, Malmberg, & Grace, 2014;Ekborg, Ideland, & Malmberg, 2017). Consequently, students need to understand these issues as scientific phenomenon as well as individual and societal concerns with different possible solutions.…”

Changes in primary school pupils' conceptions of water in the context of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) instruction

“…In STS instruction, the teacher and learners together raise questions to consider scientific phenomena as meaningful for their lives. In a study by Byrne, Ideland, Malmberg, and Grace (2014), primary school pupils engaged in socio-scientific discussions and were able to argue about complex environmental phenomena from several societal perspectives. Previous studies (Çoban et al, 2011) have revealed that, to promote pupils' conceptions of water and understanding of invisible systems, there is a need to organise study contexts in which these issues are concretely considered.…”