Abstract
In the final chapter of this volume, we look back at the two past decennia of science education from a perspective of science education as a novelizing discourse. Whereas novelization implies an ongoing, we recognize its nature as lifelong, life-wide, and life-deep. Therefore, we draw upon research across the entire lifespan to further develop our new way of thinking about and investigating the topic of the construction of images of science in science education as a novelizing discourse. We propose Fullness of Life (or total life) as the minimal unit of analysis that allows people generally and researchers specifically to make sense of cognition. This move reverses traditional perspectives: Rather than understanding life from the position of science education activities, we understand science education activities from the perspective of life taken as a whole. We propose three attendant concepts that do not focus on epicized images of science but on (a) the ability to mobilize and augment knowledge (knowledgeability), (b) the necessity to develop the disposition of the débrouillard/e and bricoleur, and (c) the necessity to conceive knowledgeability as collective property, outcome of collective praxis.
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- 1.
The stem of the term debrouillard/e is brouillard, fog, so that the term literally denotes male/female persons that get themselves out of the fog.
- 2.
Such science educators include Fensham (2002) and Hodson (1999). Whereas we agree to some degree with their calls, they do not go far enough in rethinking education from the perspective of activity systems. This would lead them to realize that schools are not about knowing but about attributing and getting grades, the real products in this system (Roth and McGinn 1998).
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van Eijck, M., Roth, WM. (2013). Fullness of Life as a Minimal Novelizing Unit. In: Imagination of Science in Education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5392-1_10
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