Futurising science education : Technology, agency and scientific literacy

This dissertation explores the roles of science and technology in young people’s images of the future and the potential of future-oriented science education to help students develop their futures thinking. Building on recent conceptualisations of scientific literacy and broader trends in education that highlight student agency, anticipation and active citizenship, this study explores thinking about sociotechnical futures and posits it as an activity to be utilised in science and technology education. Since research on young people’s images of the future has demonstrated that technology plays a central role in how they imagine the future and the changes that shape it, there is a need to address the role of perceptions of future sociotechnical change and agency in students’ thinking, as it may instruct the development of action-oriented critical scientific literacy. Through three studies, this dissertation examines the roles of science and technology in students’ images of the future, their perceptions of sociotechnical change and sociotechnical agency, and how future-oriented science education can address their views about the future, agency and the roles of science and technology. First, by employing qualitative thematic analysis of 58 upper secondary school students’ essays describing “a typical day” in the future, two studies found students’ images of the future to feature technological changes ranging from improved everyday devices to large-scale technologisation, with technology impacting everyday convenience, the environment, employment, privacy, general societal progress among other aspects of life and society. Furthermore, depictions of future science and technology were found to span minimal and radical transformation, nonproblematic and complex entanglement with society, and various framings of who, if anyone, has agency. Indications of agency were mostly vague, but students occasionally attributed agency over sociotechnical change to the general public, specialised experts, and themselves. These results deepen and specify the notion of technology as very prevalent in imagined futures, and support the presentation of dimensions to understand and address students’ perceptions of sociotechnical change and sociotechnical agency. A third study employed phenomenographic analysis of 22 interviews with upper-secondary school students. This study explored changes students self-reported in their futures and agency perceptions after attending a course focused on futures thinking skills in the context of quantum computing and technological approaches to global problems. The results showed students perceiving the future and technological development as more positive but also more unpredictable, seeing their possibilities for agency as clearer and more promising (especially by identifying with their peers or aspired career paths), and feeling a deeper connection to the otherwise vague idea of futures. Students also felt they had learned to question deterministic thinking and to think more creatively about their own lives as well as technological and non-technological solutions to global problems. Both quantum physics and futures thinking were reported to have opened new perspectives on uncertainty and probabilistic thinking. Building on identified issues in students’ thinking and the potential of science education in addressing them, this dissertation contributes to “futurising” science and technology education. Specifically, this dissertation argues for and elaborates on the development of future-oriented science education around issues of agency, value-based deliberation and sociotechnical change. This entails developing education that addresses the future in meaningful ways, developing students’ futures thinking skills, and using future-oriented contexts and technology-related issues to develop scientific literacy. A tentative definition of future-oriented science education is provided and situated in close relation to Vision III of scientific literacy. The three empirical studies are used to explore and provide concreteness to the aims, methods, and issues central to this dissertation’s suggestion for a definition of the emerging conceptualisation of future-oriented science education.

Grantor dc:publisher

Helsingin yliopisto

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Rasa, Tapio

• kasvatustiede

Statement dc:rights

• Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
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• Publikationen är skyddad av upphovsrätten. Den får läsas och skrivas ut för personligt bruk. Användning i kommersiellt syfte är förbjuden.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10138/359510

OAI record oai:identifier

https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ahelda.helsinki.fi%3A10138%2F359510