Sisyphus — Journal of Education

Innovative Secondary School

Elisabete do Carmo Dal Piva, Edite Maria Sudbrack — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Innovative Secondary School represents an opportunity for transformation in this educational stage. Given this, we investigated the potentialities and weaknesses of comprehensive education and the Innovative Secondary Education Program (ProEMI) considering changes in government policies. The specific objectives include relating the difficulties faced by students, schools, and the government with changes in public policies on Comprehensive Secondary Education and recognizing the inconsistency in teacher training due to political changes. The article has an introduction, scientific research on integral education and conclusions, with references to several authors. The methodology is based on a bibliographical study, focusing on comprehensive education in works found in the Brazilian National Database of Theses and Dissertations. We conclude that ProEMI has the potential to improve the quality of education, despite limitations, by promoting educational equality, pedagogical innovation, student retention in school, culture, and identity for high school.

Redefining Heuristic Paradigms

Alfred Patrick Addaquay — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Critically investigating the role of problem statements in academic inquiry, this paper investigates the complex equilibrium between originality and contribution in African music theory and composition. In culturally rich environments like Africa, the significance of comprehensive analysis and the preservation of established knowledge can be undermined by an excessive emphasis on novelty, despite the fact that originality is the driving force behind innovation. This study advocates for a more inclusive approach that incorporates both creative exploration and respect for traditional scholarship by utilising interdisciplinary and global perspectives. The paper underscores the significance of fostering intellectual independence and critical thinking while simultaneously acknowledging historical contributions by situating African music within global academic discourse. The paper promotes a balanced framework that promotes innovation while also acknowledging the cumulative nature of academic knowledge, thereby cultivating a dynamic and evolving scholarly environment.

Shaping the Future of Collaborative Writing in Educational Settings

Mariana Martins, Madalena Teixeira, Rosa Maria Faneca — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Interest in collaborative writing in educational settings has increased over time, but research on this subject is broad, covering several topics across different learning contexts. To outline potential gaps or emerging trends for future research, a semi-systematic literature review was conducted on the Scopus database between 2023 and May 2024, following the SPAR4-SLR protocol. This process resulted in a corpus of 24 scientific articles, whose findings were analysed according to the categories of interaction, instruction, language learning, technology integration and distance learning, contextual elements and others. While the dynamics of interaction and the use of collaborative writing in language learning were extensively discussed within the sample, explicit instruction, technology integration, the impact on writing quality, and the association with the writing process were identified as topics requiring further research. The need for more studies at the primary, middle and secondary levels was also recognised.

Artificial Intelligence and Socio-Scientific Controversies in Science Teaching in Higher Education

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This literature review explores the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the analysis of student feedback in universities. The methodology includes identification of the topic, systematic search of sources, assessment of the relevance and quality of the studies, and synthesis of the findings. The advantages and challenges of using AI and NLP to analyse student feedback, as well as their impact on improving educational quality, are discussed. The case studies of this literature review provide valuable information for the integration of socio-scientific controversies (SSC) in science education.

The Theatre of The Oppressed Impact on the Resolution of Socio-Scientific Issues

Marcella Campos Oliveira, Gabriel Henrique de Camargo, Marcelo Tadeu Motokane — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Student engagement in science subjects is closely linked to cultural diversity, considering factors such as gender, social class, and ethnicity, as well as the ways young people relate to science. To understand what influences this engagement, it is essential to observe how students experience and express the knowledge they acquire. Interdisciplinarity with the Theatre of the Oppressed can create more inclusive teaching experiences, fostering participation and empowerment. This study aims to understand how students engage in interdisciplinary activities combining Science and Theatre by analysing discursive interactions during an activity on bat ecology. Using a case study approach the research identified various types of engagement and observed how the Theatre of the Oppressed influences the resolution of socio-scientific issues. It enhances discussions and problem-solving by addressing subjectivities, rationality, and the multiple factors influencing decision-making.

Education in Science, Art and Ecofeminism in Anthropocene Questions

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This text presents data from the development of a workshop for postgraduate students in science education, during an event in Manaus (AM), which aimed to promote a space for the production of meanings based on the creation of a working table on the theme of the Anthropocene and ecofeminism, and the development of narratives with works of contemporary art by three Brazilian women. We adopted the methodology of narrative research to flesh out the experiences we had during the workshop. We discussed female protagonism as a moving force of life and the urgency of empathically approaching other beings who make up the world with us, in respectful commitments and in the desire to postpone the end of the world.

Teaching-Learning Strategies for Science Education through the Lens of Complex Problems in Contexts of Risk and Uncertainty

Néstor Alexander Zambrano-González, Mauricio Pietrocola — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this text, we undertake a theoretical reflection in an attempt to explore ways of rethinking science education for risk in a society where threats are distributed in a non-exclusive way. To this end, we begin with the notions of modern-reflective science education, complexity and globalization, and then discuss some teaching-learning strategies. Organized into groups, we argue that these strategies, in their didactic-pedagogical dimensions for science and technology education, should prepare students to tackle complex problems in scenarios close to contemporary dynamics. For each group, we point out a series of educational and research resources aimed at providing tools to act in a world in constant transformation, marked by conflicts, wars, inequalities, pandemics, fake news, denialism, and increasingly urgent techno-scientific and socio-environmental challenges. Finally, we emphasize the need to promote the development of critical, creative and reflective perspectives, in which the understanding of scientific knowledge is articulated with the richness of other ways of knowing.

Science Education for Children

Rafael Almeida de Freitas — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article focuses on Science Teaching for Children and proposes a discussion on teaching practices with this approach. The objective was to reflect on the contemporary challenges of education from the perspective of Science Education and to discuss the implications of teaching activities in the context of Science Teaching for Children for human and socio-environmental (trans)formation. It aims to answer the following question: How can we conceptualize processes and practices in Science Teaching to promote Scientific Literacy that meets contemporary scientific-technological and socio-environmental demands? Methodologically, a qualitative bibliographic study was conducted, based on the analysis of scientific articles reflected upon in light of international literature on education/science education. The article contextualizes the scenario of Latin America and the Caribbean, especially Brazil, from the perspective of theoretical and methodological aspects of Science Teaching for Children and its formative implications in terms of language and science didactics.

Decoloniality of Environmental Education in Schools from Critical Pedagogies

John William Barreto-Cárdenas — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The text explores how education can confront the climate ecocrisis, combining critical pedagogies from Latin America and Kantian ethics. It underlines that the effects of climate change go beyond the environmental, also affecting global stability. It proposes that education should not be limited to technical knowledge, but should include ethical and political dimensions. Critical pedagogies, influenced by thinkers such as Freire and Dussel, challenge colonial structures, while Kantian ethics highlights responsibility towards future generations and the planet. This combination seeks an education that promotes social justice and environmental sustainability.

Environmentalization of Secondary School Content

Diana Lineth Parga-Lozano, Carol Dayana Pinta-Pulido — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents a micro-curricular proposal in science education for secondary school (sixth, seventh, eighth and eleventh grades), with the objective of fostering scientific literacy by addressing climate change (CC) as a Socioscientific Issues (SSI) and environmentalising the teaching content. The study, qualitative in approach, employed video analysis, discussions, and informational posters as data collection methods to assess students' understanding and critical thinking about CC. The results show that integrating SSI of CC into science teaching fosters conceptual understanding, critical reflection, and informed decision making. The environmentalization of the content strengthens ecological awareness and citizenship training. This proposal contributes to science education by providing replicable strategies to develop scientific-environmental literacy in school contexts.

How and With Whom do We Know the World?

Tainá Figueroa Figueiredo, Laísa Freire — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is a theoretical study that responds to the call of the special issue of the journal by deepening perspectives of “other” educations in scientific education affected by global emergencies. Through dialogue with discussions in the fields of political ecology, education, and environmental education, we identify contemporary pathways for a science education rooted in more integrative foundations. Through epistemological, ethical, and ontological shifts, we construct pathways for multilateral learning by reflecting on the role of non-humans in shaping our way of being and thinking about the world, with love and life as guiding principles.

Training as Subjectivation

Marlécio Maknamara — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When cities announce themselves with distinct political commitments to lead populations towards sustainability, it is important to ask what is being taught and what can be learned from their artifacts. This research aimed to analyze discourses that circulate in urban green spaces to highlight curricula and pedagogies to which science teachers have been exposed. Methodologically inspired by elements of cartography, the analysis consisted of a Foucaultian-inspired problematization based on visits and experiences in Lisbon's green spaces. The results made it possible to: learn about the formative environmental education offer in three Lisbon green spaces; understand curricular propositions of this offer in terms of distinctions of references, dimensions, objectives, knowledge, values and practices; estimate possible processes of subjectivation engendered by such curricular propositions. It is concluded that it is productive for science teachers, if understood as agents of change, in their activities in urban green spaces, to pay special attention to the curricula and pedagogies analyzed here.

Science education and its relationship with other educations in global change scenarios

William Manuel Mora-Penagos — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The 21st century faces technological, military, and environmental crises that demand a "human reset" to redefine the future of humanity. Science education must undergo a sociopolitical and cultural shift, promoting epistemic diversity without falling into irrationality and addressing challenges such as misinformation and denialism. This number of Sisyphus brings together qualitative studies from researchers in various countries on science education and its intersections with art, interculturality, ecofeminism, and decoloniality. The articles explore topics such as scientific literacy, interdisciplinarity, inclusive teaching, and sustainability, emphasizing the need for socially responsible science to tackle the challenges of the Anthropocene.