Teachers’ perception of the integration of socio-scientific issues in their science classes

Abstract

The purpose for this study was to reveal the perceptions held by science teachers on the integration of socio-scientific issues in their science teaching. Also pertinent to this investigation was an understanding of what these teachers saw as the purpose(s) of such integration, how they purported to carry out the integration in their classroom, and how they perceive the role of social justice in science teaching. The theoretical principles of critical pedagogy underpinned the study and its methodology was guided by a phenomenological approach. The qualitative study was confined to eight schools in the Cape Town Metropole and ten science teachers made up the purposefully selected sample. Grounded theory was used as a method of analysis of the transcripts obtained from the semi-structured interviews conducted with the teachers on the socio-scientific issues depicted by two scenarios. Teachers saw the purposes for SSI integration in terms of its focus on the science curriculum, the everyday relevance of science and the impact of science. In addition they thought SSI integration could be useful to inculcate values, encourage behaviour change, advance both society and self, and develop critical thinking. They cited seven different teaching strategies and practices which they preferred for such integration: enquiry-based tasks; science content-specific activities; science-technology-society-environment (STSE) activities; communication of science information; science oriented projects; literacy programmes and deliberation and decision-making. The teachers thought that they could use the SSI scenarios to address socio-economic issues and issues pertaining to equity, self-determination, equality and civic values. Four general teacher profiles emerged from the research findings. These profiles captured both the commonalities and diversity existing among the participants’ perspectives.