In a reality where science is an essential element of society, its democratization in schools still raises controversial challenges.
By: Fernando Cafe
The 1970s. The world began a new way of building knowledge and work: the Technical-Scientific-Informational Revolution (Information revolution). Its consolidation transformed science and technology as central elements of the production model and generation of discoveries. With it, countries advanced, and the immersion of these concepts in education expanded the protagonism and curiosity of young people. However, although decades have passed, the consolidation of "scientific doing" in schools still encounters huge barriers, especially in economically disadvantaged regions.
With this new way of building and remodeling social ties, young people will be able to enjoy the "knowledge education" that allows the student to consolidate and propose empirical knowledge from their curiosity and interconnection with other areas of expertise. Thus, applying the STEM methodology (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) forms an environment conducive to innovation and encourages science, where the student becomes active in scientific methodology around concrete proposals for the problems of his reality.
However, it is noticeable that the democratization of this system is synonymous with inequality because many places have problems in structuring their basic education, which transforms the application of science as a secondary point in the implementation of educational institutions. India and Brazil, for example, are two countries that have paradoxical realities in the area. According to the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (2019), 35% of government schools in India do not have a science lab. In Brazil, 25.2% of elementary schools have difficulties in the area. Thus, it is observed that establishing scientific methodology through experiments and discoveries finds structural challenges in its construction.
Therefore, although essential to the current context, it is clear that the progress of science in education could be expanded if there was broad democratization in the area, thus avoiding that such reality ceased to be a paradox in teaching and social innovation.