CONCEPTS OF SCIENCE IN SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

• Grant number: 13/21879-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education
• Principal Investigator: Alice Helena Campos Pierson
• Grantee: Túlio Ferneda
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to analyze and compare conceptions of science in a selected group of science fiction novels, given the importance of those to the popular perception of science. This analysis will be guided by the epistemological perspective of Pérez and others (2001). It will be a content analysis and its main tool will be a group of questions generated from seven common misconceptions about the nature of science. The research intends to describe the novels as they contribute or not to perpetuate those misconceptions. Another expectation is to identify differences between novels from the 19th and the 20th century.