Scientific literacy and agency within the Chilean science curriculum: A critical discourse analysis

Abstract

AbstractThis paper aims to analyse the concepts of scientific literacy and agency in two official documents of the Chilean science curriculum. We used Fairclough's three dimensional model as critical lenses, based on critical discourse analysis, where every discursive event can be analysed: (i) as a text, (ii) as a discursive practice and (iii) as a social practice. The research questions were: ‘How are the different visions of scientific literacy operating and being promoted within the Chilean science curriculum?’ and ‘How is student and teacher agency declared in those documents?’ By understanding the curriculum as a dialectical process, as a social event between planning, executing, and evaluating education, we evidence tensions among different visions and paradigms for both concepts (scientific literacy and agency), specifically, in the transition from one cycle to another in secondary education. The first document has a predominantly neoliberal approach to scientific literacy and the second one presents a focus on citizenship, democracy, and social justice. As a social practice, in both documents, teachers appear under the idea of curriculum implementers, to a certain extent, based on a banking model where teachers are containers to receive someone else's curriculum expertise. The preceding imbalance raises potential tensions based on teacher performance and on student agency. Specifically, students must transition from a passive role and then consider themselves as active subjects who question how to produce knowledge, understanding their role within environmental conflicts within current socio‐political structures for instance.