RDST, n°31/2025

The RDST 31 issue focuses on the intersections between research in science and technology education and other disciplinary didactics (and professional didactics). After demonstrating the existence of cross-disciplinary research practices since the first issues of Aster, the dossier takes a historical approach to problematise the interactions between didactics from the 2000s onwards. This perspective provides a framework for reading the three contributions that, together with the introductory article, make up the issue.

Its richness lies particularly in the contrasting comparative approaches developed across the three papers. The first explores the use of a framework from mathematics education (Portugais's framework of Intentionality) in science education. The second compares the concept of "hypothesis" in two academic disciplines (history and life sciences) through the learning by problematisation framework. The final paper documents the development of a theoretical and methodological framework (that of the Lab-E3D in Bordeaux) through close collaboration between researchers in science education and language education.

Beyond the variety of comparisons, the articles revisit the issue of the generic versus the specific as a structuring question for comparative research in didactics. They also highlight the central role of theoretical and methodological frameworks in underpinning comparative work. Finally, the epistemological insights the articles provide constitute a key dimension of the contribution of comparative approaches to research in science and technology education.