The Place of Morality in Research on Socioscientific Issues in Science Education: A Systematic Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22600/1518-8795.ienci/2025v30n2p411Keywords:
Ethics, Moral values, Sociocientific controversies, Science education, Decision-makingAbstract
This article aims to investigate how ethical and moral aspects have been addressed in research on socioscientific issues (SSI), given the importance of this dimension in the characterization of such issues. A systematic literature review was adopted, in the from of an integrative review (IR), with a temporal scope from 2015 to 2024. The scientific productions, both national and international, were located in qualified journals (Qualis A1 and A2 of CAPES), as well as in sources such as the ERIC database and Google Scholar. The corpus of analysis consisted of 16 articles, which were subjected to content analysis. The main results indicate that 12 of the articles investigate the ethical and moral aspects of students and future teachers, with an emphasis on the latter. Only one study focused on didactic proposals, and another on teachers’ conceptions about teaching ethics. Despite the relevance of the ethical and moral dimension, the studies are still in an early stage, suggesting that morality does not occupy a central place in research on SSI. It is concluded that, although research on the ethical and moral aspects of SSI is still limited, it proves to be a crucial tool for studying this dimension, essential for decision-making. Furthermore, SSI offers an opportunity for science educators to integrate scientific education with moral formation and education for socially, politically, and ethically responsible citizenship.References
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