Abstract

BEVILAQUA, Vanessa Rezende; FRANCO, Fernando Faria  and  SILVA, Antônio Fernando Gouvêa. The role of historical context in understanding DNA as hereditary material in Biology textbooks, using Fleck’s epistemology. Ciência educ. [online]. 2022, vol.28, e22032.  Epub Sep 15, 2022. ISSN 1980-850X.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-731320220032.

In this paper we analyze a set of textbooks used in Brazilian high school to evaluate how the historical context is presented when it comes to bacterial transformation, which is an important historical episode for DNA recognition as a hereditary molecule. In addition, we used the epistemology of Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961) to further analyze this historical context. Only four of the ten books presented the episode of bacterial transformation. As we turn to the epistemological analysis, we found that historical contextualization presented in these four books is sometimes described in a decontextualized and linear way, making it impossible for the student to assimilate not only science as a human and collective production, but the social aspects involved in producing scientific knowledge according to Fleck’s writings: thought style, exchange of ideas, complications and transformations, as well as coercion in terms of hegemonic thought in the area.

Keywords : Biology teaching; Textbooks; Bacterial transformation; Philosophy of science; Ludwik Fleck.

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