Fact-value discourses in 19 analyses of genetics in biology textbooks: A critical review

Abstract

This study analyses research reports on textbooks in genetics education regarding the fact-value distinction. From the perspective of four possible fact-value-related discourses, I have conducted a content analysis of 19 research reports on genetics in textbooks after 2002 (articles, book chapters, and one paper based on a conference presentation.) The general background for this review is an underlying interest in combining and integrating academic achievements and value(s) education in the context of science education in the field of genetics and human beings, by, at the same time realizing the challenges in practicing the principle of interdisciplinarity. This “interest” has been illustrated both in the science education literature and in general educational theory during the last decades. Our study falls into two parts. First, we conducted a qualitative interpretative content analysis. Second, we used a quantitative approach by counting value-related words. We identified the discourses on a continuum, from single-academic-discipline-oriented discourse (based on the natural sciences) to interdisciplinary value-oriented discourse involving the social sciences and/or the humanities with their related concepts and debates. Based on our study we can recommend future researchers on textbooks to be aware of the discourses we have exemplified and therefore explicitly delimitate their study accordingly. In this context one research field could be to study what textbooks say about how to discuss value questions in the context of science and science education.