Darwinian evolution is a robustly supported scientific theory. Yet creationists continue to challenge its teaching in American public schools. Biology teachers in all 50 states are responsible for teaching science content standards that include evolution. As products of their backgrounds and affiliations teachers bring personal attitudes and beliefs to their teaching. The purpose of this study was to explore how biology teachers perceive, describe, and value their teaching of evolution. This research question was explored through a heuristic qualitative methodology. Eight veteran California high school biology teachers were queried as to their beliefs, perceptions, experiences and practices of teaching evolution. Both personal and professional documents were collected. Data was presented in the form of biographical essays that highlight teachers' backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and practices of teaching evolution. Of special interest was how they describe pressure over teaching evolution during a decade of standards and No Child Left Behind high-stakes testing mandates. Five common themes emerged. Standards have increased the overall amount of evolution that is taught. High-stakes testing has decreased the depth at which evolution is taught. Teacher belief systems strongly influence how evolution is taught. Fear of creationist challenges effect evolution teaching strategies. And lastly, concern over the potential effects of teaching evolution on student worldviews was mixed. Three categories of teacher concern over the potential impact of evolution on student worldviews were identified: Concerned, Strategist, and Carefree. In the final analysis teacher beliefs and attitudes still appeared to he the most important factor influencing how evolution is taught.

[pt] A teoria evolutiva é considerada um dos eixos organizadores da biologia. No entanto, seu ensino enfrenta diversas dificuldades em vários países. No Brasil, a resistência à teoria evolutiva é mais comum entre os evangélicos pentecostais e neopentecostais, grupos religiosos que passaram por intenso crescimento ao longo das últimas décadas. Nesta pesquisa, investigamos o ensino de evolução em duas escolas da rede estadual do Rio de Janeiro. Realizamos observações ao longo de nove meses, em turmas de primeiro ano do ensino médio, entrevistas com professores e estudantes e aplicamos um questionário aos últimos. Os resultados indicam grande complexidade e diversidade em relação às concepções de criacionismo e evolução por parte dos professores e estudantes, mesmo dentre os evangélicos pentecostais e neopentecostais. Poucos conflitos foram observados em sala de aula, porém eles foram expressos nas entrevistas e nos questionários. Os dados quantitativos indicam que os estudantes evangélicos tendem a aceitar mais a narrativa bíblica para a origem dos seres vivos e possuir maiores índices de religiosidade do que os demais grupos religiosos. Concluímos que mais pesquisas sobre as discussões sobre essa temática nas aulas de biologia são fundamentais para que estratégias didáticas que visem o entendimento da teoria evolutiva sejam desenvolvidas. / [en] The evolutionary theory is considered one of main axes of biology. However, its teaching faces many difficulties in several countries. In Brazil, the resistance to evolutionary theory is more common among Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal, religious groups that have strongly grown over the past decades. In this study, we investigated the teaching of evolution in two schools in the state of Rio de Janeiro. We performed observations over nine months in classes of the first year of high school, interviews with teachers and students and applied a questionnaire to latter. The results indicate great complexity and diversity in relation to the concepts of creationism and evolution among teachers and students, even among the Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal. Few conflicts were observed in the classroom, but they were expressed in the interviews and questionnaires. Quantitative data indicate that Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal students tend to accept more the biblical account of the origin of living beings and have greater religiosity rates than other religious groups. We conclude that more research on this topic in biology classes are essential to develop teaching strategies aimed at understanding the evolutionary theory.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Intelligent Design (ID) Bewegung auf Basis der Luhmannschen Systemtheorie. Innerhalb dieser theoretischen Rahmung werden eine Einordnung und Positionsbestimmung der Bewegung, die ihrer Selbstbeschreibung nach wissenschaftlich operiert, vorgenommen. Die Wurzeln der Bewegung finden sich in der historischen Ausgangslage protestantischer Konfessionen. Aufgrund ihres Glaubens verfolgt, emigrierten viele Christen aus Europa in die 'neue Welt'. Die evolutionstheoretischen Erkenntnisse des 19. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere von Charles Darwin, hatten auch für das theologische Selbstverständnis dieser christlichen Gruppierungen weitreichende Folgen. Diesen wird entlang der Positionierung zum Kreationismus bis hin zum modernen politischen Aktivismus der Evangelikalen nachgegangen. Der systemtheoretische Ansatz leitet die Betrachtung der komplexen Kopplungen der ID-Bewegung zwischen verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Teilsystemen an. Insbesondere wird die Beziehung zur Wissenschaft behandelt, mit Fokus auf das organisationale Zentrum der Bewegung, das Discovery Institute. Neben der politischen Arbeit wird der nach US-Recht „steuerrechtlich gemeinnützigen“ Stellung der Organisation besondere Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Politisches Agieren und wirtschaftliche Aspekte lenken den Blick schließlich auf die Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der ID-Bewegung und deren massenmedialen Auftritt. Die vorgebliche Wissenschaftlichkeit der Bewegung endet im Versuch das gegenwärtige System der Wissenschaft durch religiös-normative Setzungen zu regulieren. Das Ziel wird dabei mit der Gegenrepräsentation in der Gesellschaft, als soziale Bewegung, verfolgt.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:00:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodolfo Carvalho.pdf: 1418015 bytes, checksum: 00f91c17a9bca44d474758722bf7d95f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-16 / This paper has as its main purpose to highlight what are the concepts of future Science and Biology teachers from UFG about the controversy caused by the debate between the ideas of creationism and biological evolution concerning the origin and diversity of life. The study subjects were licensed teachers from the initial and final grades of the Biological Sciences course UFG. This study is based on the questions of quantitative and qualitative research. It was used as a method, case study and, as the main instrument for data collection, the questionnaire comprising two parts: 1) Licensed teachers socio-cultural profile and 2) A dilemma simulating a debate situation on the controversy analyzed. Analyzing the data collected and the bibliographies referred to the topic under this study, as results, the following scores / categories were obtained: a) With respect to subjects perceptions about the controversy creationism x biological evolution, it was evident that this dilemma is related to students familiar/religious formation; b) For future Biology teachers all ideas on the origin and diversity of life should be discussed and taught in the classroom and c) The justification to deal with these ideas in the classroom has a connection with a respect towards creationists opinions. From these three categories, it was evidenced the presence of a mythical-religious ideology about the origin and diversity of life by promoting an epistemological and Bachelardean obstacle. Through this, it was built up another term which would explain the difficulty of working with this controversy which was called mythical-religious obstacle. From this obstacle, it is concluded that future Biology teachers do not know that the public school is secular as well as they lack of knowledge about the scientific demarcation and, that biological evolution is the epistemological paradigm of Biology. Such results show the need for an elaboration of issues related to the history and philosophy of science in graduate courses. / Este trabalho tem como propósito central analisar as percepções dos futuros professores de Ciências e Biologia da UFG sobre a polêmica ocasionada pelo debate entre as idéias de criacionismo x evolução biológica a respeito da origem e diversidade da vida. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram os estudantes, futuros professores, das séries iniciais e finais do Curso de Ciências Biológicas UFG. O trabalho é baseado na pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa. Em derivação a esse tipo de pesquisa, utilizamos o estudo de caso como abordagem metodológica. O nosso instrumento para coleta dos dados foi o questionário, organizado em duas partes: 1o) perfil sócio-cultural dos futuros professores e 2o) Um dilema simulando uma situação de debate sobre a polêmica analisada. Analisando os dados coletados e as bibliografias referidas à temática em estudo, obtivemos como resultados as seguintes pontuações/categorias: a) com relação às percepções de nossos sujeitos pesquisados sobre a polêmica criacionismo x evolução biológica, foi identificado que este dilema está relacionado à formação familiar/religiosa dos discentes/docentes; b) para os futuros professores de Biologia todas as idéias sobre a origem e diversidade da vida deverão ser discutidas e ministradas em sala de aula e c) a justificativa para ministrar todas essas idéias em sala de aula tem relação com um respeito sobre posicionamentos criacionistas. A partir dessas categorias, evidenciamos a presença de uma ideologia mítico-religiosa sobre as explicações pertinentes a origem e diversidade da vida, favorecendo o surgimento de um novo termo, apoiado também na idéia de obstáculo epistemológico bachelardiano que explicaria a dificuldade de trabalhar essa polêmica, ao qual denominamos de obstáculo mítico-religioso. A partir desse obstáculo inferimos que os futuros professores de Ciências e Biologia desconhecem que a escola pública é laica; carecem de saberes sobre as demarcações científicas e; de que a evolução biológica é o paradigma epistemológico da Biologia. Tais resultados mostram a necessidade de um aprofundamento das questões relacionadas à história, epistemologia e filosofia da ciência nos cursos de graduação da área.

This diploma work analyzes the contemporary rise of the number of atheists in the United States of America, basing this presupposition on numerous nation-wide surveys, primarily conducted by Gallup Poll and Pew Research Center. It goes into depth on the definition of atheism and strictly delineates the meaning of this word and the use of its alternatives in the work. Given the fact that the thesis is written by a Czech author, it also provides necessary background covering the differences between Czech atheism and American atheism. Since the work is purposely not one of literary analysis but rather of socio-political and cultural nature, reasons for this decision are given in a separate subchapter analyzing Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood. History of atheism in America is touched upon in the beginning of Chapter 3, but since the fundamental focus of this work is on the contemporary state of affairs, the roots of modern atheism in America are sought after mainly in the twentieth century. In particular, the greatest causes of the weakening of church's power and the rise of secularism (or atheism, for that matter) are given as following: Madalyn Murray O'Hair's fights against church's influence in public schools and against its public funding; the argument about the non-scientific nature of belief...

Homosexuality and Teaching of the Catholic Church is a critical analysis of homosexuality as an anthropological phenomenon examined from dogmatic and theological as well as ethical perspective laid down in the Catholic teaching and reviewed in the context of the Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family, Amoris laetitia. It confronts particular anthropological approaches towards theoretical and practical problems concerning homosexual orientation with the emphasis put on their compatibility with the Catholic moral doctrine. Searching for a conform personally accepted and positive integration of homosexuality perceived as irregular and difficult situation according to the Christian understanding of integral personal and spiritual growth in relation to a man practicing his Catholic faith is the main task of this diploma thesis.

A dynamic movement known as wealth creation education attracts many thousands of people seeking education for the vocation of an entrepreneur in the UK. Entrepreneurship education in these collectives includes venturing know-how but also co-constructs existential meaning and purpose for adherents, a role traditionally fulfilled by religion. This emergent sectarian movement is identified as wealth creationism. Led by charismatic entrepreneurs this newly identified research domain represents rich opportunities to study entrepreneurs in naturally arising settings, but has been neglected and understudied. While publicly subsidised educational support for small-business owners has suffered from low uptake, this study provides new knowledge about the kind of education that is engaged with in large numbers, despite being more expensive. This inquiry critically examines the attraction of these educational collectives and evaluates the social processes of eight wealth creation education providers in England. Teaching content and methods were also investigated. This qualitative study takes an interpreted approach through a social constructionism perspective. Using grounded theory methodology the providers were initially researched through participative observation in the educational settings followed by theoretically sampling data with various collection methods. Interdisciplinary theories, including the sociology of religion, accounted for findings, which were analysed at the meso-group level. The movement teaches entrepreneurship know-how and 'mindset' - ways of thinking and being. Insulating directives of behaviour and the construction of stigmatised out-groups maintain social boundaries. Employing similar narrative features and resources as religious sects, the socially constructed co-extensive nomos and cosmos privileges esoteric knowledge and is closely identified with modern Gnosticism. Participants do not acknowledge religious interpretations of their activities, yet three North American authors provide plausible canonical works that legitimise the movement. Wealth Creationists display entrepreneurial chauvinism, which equates employment with bondage, viewing the employed as slaves. Adherents choose educators with perceived entrepreneurial credibility to lead them on a purposeful mission for the type of knowledge that promises emancipation. This study is significant for both researchers of entrepreneurs and the sociology of religion. It offers participating entrepreneurs critical insights into the charismatic settings, which can be both enabling and disabling for venturing. This study has implications for academics engaged in outreach to small-business owners who may learn from the marketing tactics of these groups, although academics may still lack perceived credibility. Insights into business group formation will be of interest to business group researchers. A map of educational provision may interest researchers and educators of small and microbusiness owners, and those from the fields of entrepreneurial learning.