RDST, n°18/2018

In a context of rapid and important advances in biology and biotechnology, the question of the limits to be set and the orientations to be chosen concerning the action of Man on the living and in particular their diversity is on the agenda.

It questions the values underlying the relationship that Man has with life, the living (s).

Being able to understand and contribute to decision making about these socio-scientific issues has become an important matter in scientific education over the last two decades.

After an update on the research on these themes, the contributions of the thematic part of the dossier 18 explore three aspects of their inclusion in formal education:

- an inventory of the taking into account of the living (compulsory education) and biodiversity (primary and secondary education) through the prescribed curricula of life sciences;

- teachers' declared appropriation of museum or curriculum opportunities to address biodiversity and societal issues associated with life;

- the difficulties of "scientific" teachers in understanding hybrid content such as nanotechnologies and animal well being.

These 6 articles invite to question the coherence and the relevance of the curricular choices concerning the teaching of living and biodiversity in the light of the multiple stakes concerning them and contribute to better understand their apprehension by the teachers.