Philosophically Correct Science Stories? Examining the Implications of Heroic Science Stories for School Science

Some people think that science is a set of facts that can be presented in plain and unadorned language. This fosters a belief that science has few stories. Actually, stories are very important in school science. In an examination of science textbooks, I have identified four different types of science stories which I call (a) heroic, (b) discovery, (c) declarative, and (d) politically correct. Each of these types of story promotes a particular set of philosophical assumptions about science. These assumptions are presented implicitly within the framework of the story as truths of science. This article specifically examines the philosophical assumptions that underpin heroic science stories and the implications of these stories in the discursive practices of the school science classroom. As teachers, we need to be critically aware of these assumptions, since they may be at odds with our beliefs about knowledge and our preferred teaching practices. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 175–187, 1998. I am interested in examining the implicit notions of science that are embedded in particular types of science story told in school science. I argue that these stories help to frame the discourses of the school science classroom and that different types of science stories told in science textbooks present implicit notions about the nature of science to teachers and students. The types of stories that I have analyzed are not exhaustive or inclusive, but I have identified the following: the heroic science story, the discovery science story, the declarative science story, and the politically correct science story. Heroic science stories focus on a hero of science who single-handedly contributed to the development of science. In discovery science stories, scientific knowledge is presented as having occurred as the result of an accident (Milne, 1996a). In declarative science stories, processes or scientific concepts become objects and are represented as open to observation in nature by anyone (Milne, 1996c). These particular stories present concepts such as food chains, acid, gravity, genes and temperature as secure and timeless, and as a consequence, any sense of the construction of these concepts is lost. Politically correct science stories are a relatively recent development in school science as some teachers and texts attempt to represent more fairly the contribution of people from different cultures, genders, religions, and countries to the development of science and to examine critically the interaction between science and society as they construct each other. I argue that as teachers, we need to be aware of both the power of story and of the philosophical assumptions underpinning them, especially those which may be at odds with our emerging views on the constructed nature of scientific knowledge (Milne, 1996b). In JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING VOL. 35, NO. 2, PP. 175–187 (1998) © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0022-4308/98/020175-13 this article, I specifically wish to examine critically the representation of heroes, both men and women, in science stories and the implications for teaching practice and learning that can be drawn from these representations.