Epistemic Practices Research Articles

Epistemic (In)justice: Whose voices count? Listening to migrants and students

In this study, we present the results of a project, which involved students enrolled at four universities located in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. The main goal of the project was to raise students’ awareness about the conditions that cause epistemic injustice for migrants and refugees. Epistemic injustice is a concept that sheds light on the ethical dimensions of our epistemic practices. It recognizes that individuals can be wronged specifically in their capacity as knowers, a capacity essential to human value (Fricker, 2007). The project material included a set of interviews with migrants and refugees as well as desk research about the status of their national migratory contexts. Students exchanged their testimonies via extended sessions that took place between October and November of 2022. An ethics of listening was cultivated to disrupt conventions of authorized discourse about migrants. Through understanding that labels such as illegal, undocumented and unauthorized are not neutral descriptors but carry implicit association and value judgments that frame and influence debate, students were invited to engage in a form of communication and consciousness to create spaces for unheard, marginalized voices of migration trends (Lipari, 2010.) Our international research with students and migrants was influenced by Arjun Appadurai (2006) who invites us to question established paradigms and critically reflect on contemporary global dynamics of migration contributing to Sousa Santos ‘ecology of knowledges’ across continents and cultures (2015).

“Join the Coalition”: How Pioneer Journalism Communities Reimagine Journalistic Epistemology from the Periphery

This article examines how pioneer journalism communities reimagine journalistic epistemology from the periphery, and traces how ideas about journalism as a form of knowledge are embodied in their metadiscourses and enacted in their epistemic practice. Empirically grounded in metajournalistic discourse analysis of manifestos, event descriptions, and semi-structured interviews, this cross-national multi-method study explicates (1) pioneer journalism communities’ epistemic values found in the manifestos of 20 journalism startups from different parts of the globe and online descriptions of seven innovation-focused industry events; and (2) how pioneer journalism communities put these values into epistemic practice, based on interviews with 30 pioneer journalism producers from four startups located in different journalistic cultures—Bureau Local (UK), The Current (Pakistan), DoR (Romania), and New Naratif (Malaysia). The study findings suggest that pioneer journalism communities around the world imagine their knowledge production praxis as relational and meaningful, and through their metadiscourses and storytelling practices, create self-contained spaces of collective action, where publics play an equally important role in the negotiation of knowledge. Pioneer journalism communities around journalism startups/cooperatives go beyond their traditional epistemic role as facilitators of knowledge and adopt a semi-political, knowledge-based advocacy role, seeking to act upon their visions of “a better future” (Rappler).

From gender segregation to epistemic segregation: a case study of the school system in Iran

Abstract In this paper, I show that there is a bidirectional relationship between gender-based social norms and gender-segregated education policies that excludes girls from knowledge production within the Iranian school system. I argue that gender segregation in education reproduces hermeneutic inequality through the reinforcement of epistemic segregation as a form of epistemic injustice. In particular, I focus on gender-based instructional epistemic injustice, which refers to a set of epistemic practices that actively exclude a student or an education professional in their capacity as a knower from the process of knowledge production within an education system based on gender dynamics, roles, norms, or expectations. This, in addition, has an impact on schoolboys through the reproduction of active ignorance. I conclude that in societies such as Iran, where highly gendered norms play out in the school system and are further reinforced by that system, the result is not limited to gender segregation itself, but extends beyond it to a form of epistemic injustice that wrongs students by reproducing and reinforcing those highly gendered norms.

Makers, Not Users: Inscriptions of Design in the Development of Postdigital Technology Education

AbstractThis paper directs attention to a recent government-led school development initiative in Denmark, where a broad concept and practice of design became central to imagining and reworking technology education for the postdigital condition, in which schoolchildren were imagined to become makers, not users of technological society. Using an analytical apparatus inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS), the paper examines how and what understandings of design were propagated in the trial of technology comprehension in the public school. The paper examines two design models as didactic-pedagogical translation of design into the epistemic practices of the public school, articulated in the intellectual traditions of Bildung and Didaktik. Examining the knowledges that make knowledges, the paper contributes an elucidation of the features, capacities, and limitations of the concept and practice of design, as it is mobilised to make knowledge and subjectivities about agency and change for schooling in the postdigital educational future.

A rural teacher’s transformational journey implementing digital technology

ABSTRACT Teacher learning is a non-linear process that takes place in the context of their practice. As teachers have different roles, moments of learning are created when a deficiency on the part of the teacher or the context is experienced as inhibiting effective teaching and learning. This paper presents the processes of learning when a teacher is confronted by a challenge that affects him and the learners. In rural schools in South Africa, there is a lack of teaching and learning materials, and the impact of such on learning outcomes has been adverse. However, one teacher overcame this situation by using computer simulations. As a result of using this digital teaching and learning tool, an Aha! moment was recognised. The study revealed that computer simulations are curriculum materials that can be used as an interactive source of content and a medium to engage learners and communicate the content. CS presents an opportunity for learners to author their own descriptions of phenomena- an epistemic practice that supports English language learners. Through reflexivity, the teacher adopted a subjectivist view which questions the independent existence of reality and the researcher’s role in researching it. The insights gained in this study have implications for the practice of teachers in rural areas. Moments of learning are created in the context of the practice of teachers. Teachers need to embrace Aha! moments as opportunities for learning and developing the contextual knowledge of teaching to address local concerns.

The Critical Role of Understanding Epistemic Practices in Science Teaching Using Wicked Problems

AbstractWicked problems have been characterised by their high epistemological and axiological complexities. These are the kinds of problems that may invade our classrooms because many of them concern many stakeholders, including our students. Several approaches have been developed to address wicked problems in various contexts. However, little is known about how they may translate into educational research and practice. This paper proposes a conceptual framework in which wicked problems are analysed from their ontological, epistemological, and ethical commitments. Subsequently, they are framed within post-normal science, drawing on critical discourse in science studies and science education. Chief to the arguments is a focus on epistemic practices that are strongly anchored in but also extend from disciplinary science and engineering education. Implications for research and practice in higher science education are presented.

Bike Kitchens and the sociomateriality of practice change: exploring cycling-repair relations

ABSTRACT Maintenance and repair of bikes – material interventions – are essential to sustain cycling practices. In this paper we explore the role of (bi)cycle self-repair workshops (Bike Kitchens) and the practices they enable to maintain cycling practices. We connect a sociomaterial understanding of assisted self-repair to Bike Kitchens’ role in transformational mobility change. Empirically, we utilize our own experiences in organizing and running a small Bicycle Kitchen in Sweden in conjunctions with observations and interviews, drawing on theories of social practice, the sociology of materiality and repair studies. We develop the position that through deliberate engagement with the cycle as an entity, assisted self-repair practices provide flexible means of representing the transformative potential of cycling materialities. This has implications for the meanings attached to the cycle, cycling, repair and other associated practices. We argue that Bike Kitchens may engender epistemic practices useful to develop human-centered visions for re-imagining mobility and sociomaterial relations.

Approaching diagnostic messiness through spiderweb strategies: Connecting epistemic practices in the clinic and the laboratory

Scientific and medical practice both relate to and differ from each other, as do discussions of how to handle decisions under uncertainty in the laboratory and clinic respectively. While studies of science have pointed out that scientific practice is more complex and messier than dominant conceptions suggest, medical practice has looked to the rigour of scientific and statistical methods to address clinical uncertainty. In this article, we turn to epistemological studies of the laboratory to highlight how clinical practice already has strategies for dealing with messiness. We draw on Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's Toward a History of Epistemic Things, in which he invokes the metaphor of a spider's web to explain the role of tacit practices in experimental biochemistry for helping practitioners manage messiness. We argue that diagnostic practices in clinical medicine employ similar, albeit codified, procedures to evaluate epistemic significance, ensure sensitivity to the unforeseen, and allow focused grounds for action. We consider three practices: (a) the pre-set structure of medical records, ensuring broad coverage in initial anamnesis, (b) the use of lists of differential diagnoses and ongoing ‘anchoring and adjusting’ as inquiry progresses, and (c) shared decision-making as an occasion to synthesize empirical evidence and reopen inquiry for potential missed information. We end by suggesting that while philosophy of medicine may learn from laboratory epistemology, the sciences may learn something from medical practice.

Seven design principles for teaching complex socioscientific issues: the design of a complex systems agent-based disease epidemic model and the application of epistemic practices in high school biology

Historic challenges in the biological sciences, such as the spread of disease and climate change, have created an unprecedented need for humans to engage with scientific information to address societal problems. However, understanding these socioscientific issues (SSI) can be hard due to the difficulty of comprehending their complex structures and behaviors, the intentional propagation of misinformation, and an insufficient understanding of the epistemic practices that scientists use to develop relevant knowledge. Education researchers have highlighted additional problems in the way science is taught with a focus mainly on concepts rather than practices, competing curricular mandates, and professional development activities that do not provide usable knowledge. The research reported here follows more than a decade of work using agent-based computational models to support the comprehension and analysis of complex biological systems. Our recent work has aimed to build tools and strategies to support students in decision making about complex SSIs. In this paper, we discuss 7 design challenges and principles that underpin this recent focus. Specifically, we combine agent-based modeling with strategies to develop students’ epistemic performance in high school biology curricula. We then provide a detailed case study of how the 7 design principles were used to create a disease epidemic model and unit anchored in the biology topic of the nature of science. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive set of research-derived design principles that can bridge classroom experiences in biology to applications of SSIs.

Spirit Tactics

Speculative narratives of (techno)magic such as those offered by feminist technoscience, cyberwitches and techno-shamanism come from knowledge systems long marginalised in a hyper-optimised and hard-science-reliant capitalist discourse. Aiming to de-centre Western rational imaginaries of technology, they speak from decolonial and translocal perspectives, in which the relations between humans and technology are reconfigured in terms of care, relationality and multiplicity of epistemic positions. In this paper, we consider (techno)magic as an act of transgressing a knowledge system plus relational ethics plus capacity to act beyond the constraints of the current capitalist belief system. (Techno)magic is about disentangling from commodified forms of belief and knowledge and instead cultivating solidarity, relationality, common spaces and trust with non-humans: becoming-familiar with the machine. What critical approaches, epistemic and aesthetic procedures do these speculative practices enable in media art and resistant tech? In what ways does “magic” act as an alternative political imaginary in the age of hegemonic Western epistemologies? Drawing on feminist STS and the works of artists such as Choy Ka Fai, Omsk Social Club, Ian Cheng, Suzanne Treister and others, we propose to address (techno)magic seriously as an ethical and epistemic practice.

Pluralism and complexity without integration? A critical appraisal of Mitchell’s integrative pluralism

This paper critically examines Mitchell’s integrative pluralism. Integrative pluralism is the view that scientific explanations should primarily aim to integrate descriptions from different ontological levels. We contend that, while integrative pluralism is a fundamental strategy in contemporary science, there are specific reasons why one should not expect integration in the sense developed by Mitchell to be the optimal strategy and the one that scientists should always aim for. Drawing on some examples from contemporary biology, we argue that integration is sometimes neither epistemically desirable, nor ontologically achievable. We conclude that integrative pluralism should thus be limited to a specific class of complex systems but cannot be generalised as the preferable research strategy without further information about the epistemic practices of the scientific community or the ontology of the system under investigation.

Use of Drawings and Connections Between Epistemic Practices in Grade 1 Science Lessons

Use of Drawings and Connections Between Epistemic Practices in Grade 1 Science Lessons

Working with Knowledge in Clinical Supervision: A Qualitative Study

AbstractClinical supervision is crucial for the professional learning and development of practitioners in many fields. While many have articulated what should happen in clinical supervision, and evaluative research has been undertaken, little is known about the details of what actually happens in clinical supervision. This study addresses this gap, focusing on how professionals (psychologists) work with knowledge while collaboratively working through complex problems of practice. Six psychologists (three pairs) participated, audio-recording five supervision sessions, and giving two interviews each. Transcripts were analysed to uncover what was discussed and how problems were approached. Four ways of working with knowledge (epistemic practices) were found: recontextualising practice knowledge, recontextualising theoretical knowledge, story-telling, and asking expansive questions. These highlight important features of professional supervision practice that have not previously been approached theoretically as epistemic practices.

Three Criteria for Virtuous Collaboration Across Epistemic Practices: A Case From Sentimentalism and Field Environmental Philosophy

The present paper proposes three desiderata that methodologies for collaboration between philosophy and ethnobiology should satisfy. The account considers that a focus on a sentimentalist virtue epistemology is necessary to effectively address problems and challenges in such collaborations. Our focus on sentimentalism is further elaborated through three desiderata: (D1) The context of the collaboration should encourage receptivity among practitioners; (D2) collaborations should aim to produce knowledge that addresses the problems faced by stakeholders; and (D3) relevant communities and collaborators for each case should be included by attuning to the conditions of the collaboration. To support our argument, we present the methodology of Field Environmental Philosophy as a case study in which attention to these desiderata is thoroughly present, resulting in a successful collaboration. We argue that these desiderata are crucial for understanding collaborations between philosophy and ethnobiology.

Evaluation of knowledge in science lessons: an analysis of epistemic practices in an 8th grade classroom

ABSTRACT This paper analyses how 8th graders build epistemic practices of evaluation of knowledge. Guided by Ethnography in Education, we followed a group in their science lessons through one year, using participant observation. Following Kelly's propositions concerning epistemic practices, we selected key events towards an analysis of discursive interactions. The results indicate a trajectory of changes in constructing practices of evaluation of knowledge over time. The repertoire built by the group throughout 8th grade allowed students to evaluate knowledge claims in order to value alleged scientific evidence to the detriment of other rationalities. Evidence, in this case, was being used as a tool for students to support and communicate their propositions, but they were not evaluated. Events that broke with rationality based on the use of evidence generated opportunities for the group to start engaging in practices such as: evaluating the quality of alleged scientific evidence, pondering possible errors, or proposing alternative interpretations. Future events in the history of the group throughout 9th grade indicate that this type of practice became part of their discussions. We discuss implications for pedagogical practice and research in science education.

Provincializing “web traffic”: data imaginaries and vernacular construction ofliuliangin China

AbstractThis article dehomogenizes the concept of “web traffic” through a keywords-informed approach. It attends to how, in China, the term for “web traffic,” liuliang (流量), is utilized in rich and creative ways. Instantiating bottom-up epistemic practices, the taxonomies, collocations, and wisdom related to liuliang reveal alternative and locally relevant ways in which people imagine, apprehend, and deal with digital media and data in everyday life. They unleash a set of reinvigorating vocabulary for the theorization of web traffic—liquidity, manipulability, portability, socio-spatial differentiation, ideological valence, and mystified power, among others. These new lenses enrich a genuinely global understanding of digital media, enable those in the Global North to comparatively rethink their taken-for-granted experiences of datafication, and democratize the making of media knowledges by addressing the inequality between the Global North and South(s), between experts and non-experts.

Recognising and addressing wealth privilege in policymaking through an analysis of epistemic practice and agency

The author makes the case that wealth inequality ramifies in the communicative practices of policymaking in ways which produce specific forms of epistemic injustice. Relative epistemic authority between richer and poorer knowers is established by limiting some speakers to being sources of information, and elevating others to the epistemically more sophisticated role of inquirer. In its systemic form, this differentiation has the effect of re-producing and maintaining ‘tracker prejudices’ (Fricker, 2007) and ‘tracker privileges’ (Medina, 2011) which then ramify in relational and distributive inequality (Fricker, 2016). The article suggests that in a context in which the inclusion of ‘lived experience’ has come to be seen as an intrinsic good in policy discourse (Smith-Merry, 2020), the lived experience we need to amplify isn’t that of the poor, it is that of the rich. Only in centring rich voices in social policymaking can we reveal and challenge the operation of wealth privilege and advance reparatory forms of epistemic practice.1

Interdisciplinary dialogic argumentation among out‐of‐field and in‐field physics teachers

AbstractOut‐of‐field teaching is a global educational challenge. In particular, many teachers whose academic background and main teaching experience is in biology are called to teach middle school physics and have limited opportunities for productive professional development. Based on previous studies, we expect these teachers to hold different epistemic cognitions from the in‐field teachers. The present study builds on this epistemic diversity and offers dialogic argumentation as a means to promote mutual learning among physics teachers from different disciplinary backgrounds. We describe guidelines for designing interdisciplinary dialogic argumentation activities that aim to encourage teachers to express their disciplinary perspectives in the context of inquiry‐based physics and to facilitate a deliberative discourse among them. We demonstrate in a case study the ways in which the discourse of a group of in‐field and out‐of‐field teachers unfolds under the proposed design guidelines. Using the Actor‐Network methodology and an analysis of power relations, we uncover a complex interplay between the social and the epistemic in the discourse: when interactions become more dialogic and power relations more equalized, the out‐of‐field teachers take an active role in the discussion, foregrounding their epistemic practices and enhancing the epistemic practices of the group, including the in‐field teacher.

Secondary school students' responses to epistemic uncertainty during an ecological citizen science inquiry

AbstractUncertainty is endemic to scientific research practices; therefore, it is also an important element in learning about science. Studies have shown that experiences and management of uncertainty regarding the epistemic practices of science can support learning. Whereas the common strategies of supporting students in handling uncertainty rely on the teacher knowing the preferred outcomes and answers, few studies have explored settings in which no one can give the right answers to students. In this study, we explore how Finnish, suburban secondary school students (aged 13–14 years) respond to epistemic uncertainty during an ecological citizen science inquiry, in which the aim is to produce novel scientific knowledge. Drawing from qualitative interaction analysis of video and interview data, we articulate three responses to uncertainty that arise when students try to make optimal choices during the inquiry: they (a) envision alternative narrative scenarios and hypothesis; (b) accept and maintain it as part of their argumentation practices, and (c) flexibly reframe their research activities and goals. The findings indicate that the citizen science setting can allow students to reframe epistemic uncertainty in ways that are typical of scientific practices even without deliberate scaffolding by the teacher. We suggest that incorporating experiences of uncertainty that are shared by students and teachers in pedagogical design can support doing and learning science in different settings.

Do epistemically more sophisticated students always learn better than epistemically less sophisticated students in a constructivist learning context?

Previous studies suggested that epistemically more sophisticated students learned better in a constructivist learning context than epistemically less sophisticated students did. This study further examined if students with higher prior epistemic beliefs (EB High) had better learning gains than students with lower prior epistemic beliefs (EB Low) in a different constructivist learning context—Knowledge Building. We found that EB High and EB Low students did not differ in learning gains in Knowledge Building. We also examined how EB High and EB Low students engaged in epistemic practices on Knowledge Forum. Through discourse analysis, we found that although EB High students engaged in more sophisticated epistemic practices than EB Low students did, they both improved their epistemic practices; as time unfolded, the gaps between their epistemic practices narrowed down. This study has important implications for how to help students with different epistemic sophistication benefit from a constructivist learning context.