EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL BOARD
CONTENTS
  Vol. 1, June 2005
Vol. 2, December 2005
Vol. 3, June 2006
Vol. 4, December 2006
Vol. 5, June 2007 (abst.)
Vol. 6, December 2007 (abst.)
Vol. 7
Vol. 8
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Editorial

The journal Critical / Science & Education is the product of the work of a network of researchers. This network is formed having as its basic unifying element the intention to theoretically reconstruct the radical perspective about science and education.

It is a belief of most of the members of this network, that the radical perspective cannot be developed if it disregards the theoretical contributions and heritages of the various trends. These approaches are integrated into studies on science, cultural studies, environmental studies, gender studies, in the perspective of history and philosophy of science and science education.

It is widely known that in the field of education, at least within the Anglo-Saxon world, wherefrom comes most of the bibliographical production, there is a certain amount of mistrust or even a tendency of excessive rigorousness, on behalf of critical pedagogy, towards the aforementioned trends. Nevertheless, it is accepted that various issues related to diversity, to the weak representation of specific parts of the population in the fields of knowledge of science and mathematics, to the moral aspects of science, etc, cannot be fully analyzed solely within the framework of critical pedagogy. Consequently, there is a need for further theoretical contributions to such analyses.

In the interdisciplinary domain of the history of science, a discourse has developed during the last decades, concerning the ways of propagation of the dominant science and technology. There are also a growing number of comparative studies of different scientific and technological traditions. The radical approach of these subjects does not content itself only to recognizing the “peculiarities”, but it also goes on to examine and reveal the relations of authority and of mutual dependence, as well as the uses of science by the dominant social classes. Adopting an attitude of critique towards the sociological approaches, which try to degrade the importance of the historical analysis of the relations of dependence, the radical approach is studying the relations between the classes, the forms of state and/or the cultures.

A common feature of all of the participants in this effort is their belief that a new, different point of view about science and education is attainable (or, even more, a new form of science and of education is attainable). We believe that the social forces of labor and cultural resistance conserve their renewing potential, and that a different world is feasible, despite the hegemony of a political and cultural conservatism, which has lead to fragmentation not only of the collective, but also of the personal, individual. The reconstruction of the individual (either the collective or the personal) – an individual who possesses the ability for action – is directly connected with his/her theoretical equipment.

With this argumentation as the linchpin, the first working conference was organized, in July 2004, within the wider framework of the seminars of Ermoupolis, on the island of Syros, Greece. The subject of the conference was: “Radical Approaches to Science and the History of Science”. The second working conference took place at the same site, in June 2005, having as a subject: “Sciences and Social Justice” a third in July 2006 and a fourth in July 2007. One of the scopes of the journal is to publish articles based on the papers presented at these working conferences. However, the journal is open and invites papers to be published, provided that they integrate in its repertoire and they promote the theoretical discourse, in the form it was sketched in the previous lines.

The journal publishes articles in Greek with an abstract in English. An annual issue with articles in English is planned.

 

 

 

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