Education in the age of manufactured uncertainty: science students as agents of change

• Grant number: 24/16572-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Mauricio Pietrocola Pinto de Oliveira
• Grantee: Gabriel Lanzillotta Merlo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/06977-5 - Implementation research of curriculum innovation, pedagogical strategies, and emerging technologies for quality-equity in basic education, AP.TEM

Abstract

Uncertainty, which is increasingly present in modern life due to scientific advances, is rarely addressed in schools in a way that encourages the agency needed to deal with it. Although the topic is present in specialized literature, there is a lack of research on how students can use scientific knowledge to act in scenarios of uncertainty. Climate change has challenged researchers and educators on how to approach this topic in the classroom, since acting and making decisions in an uncertain environment are still challenges to contemporary didactics, which are very well established in the field of scientific certainties. The aim is to investigate how high school students can increase their agency in uncertain scenarios. We will develop scenarios related to climate change in order to understand how variables from different contexts, such as the economic, social and scientific, are evaluated and weighed up by students when they are making decisions. The research methodology is characterized by being an intervention, case study type and will adopt a qualitative methodology for data production and analysis. Thus, it will have three phases: i) construction of a "state of knowledge" on evaluation, decision-making and agency in scenarios of uncertainty in the educational literature; ii) development and implementation of teaching-learning activities in the form of a didactic module using the gaming approach and storylines as a basis for development, accompanied by a focus group, with data collection by video recording, field notes and material produced by the students; iii) analysis of the empirical material by means of Discursive Textual Analysis. (AU)