Science Teaching as a Moral Endeavour: Making Sense From Critical Sociocultural and Heritage Perspectives

This chapter deals with different ideas of the moral and ethical dimensions of science education, teaching and learning. Moral dilemmas are everyday occurrences that teachers encounter in their science classrooms. In a globalized world, science teaching is both an intellectual endeavour and a moral endeavour. Science education research has to explore these moral developments as a part of classroom-based research. Teaching that involves classroom interactions that infuse moral and ethical dilemmas with science content has a greater potential to build student capacities for locating layered connections between science and larger social issues. Science teachers are increasingly encouraged and required to plan and conduct their instruction based on constructivist and inquiry-oriented theories. Teaching science content with students’ local contexts and experiences infused in the instruction and activities demands transgression from the traditional norms of standards-based, test-oriented, content-focused science teaching.