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<p> When groups of people are represented in classification systems, potential exists for them to be structurally or linguistically subordinated, erased or otherwise misrepresented (Olson &amp; Schlegl, 2001). As Bowker &amp; Star (1999) have shown, the real-world application of classification to people can have legal, economic, medical, social, and educational consequences. The purpose of this research is to contribute to knowledge organization by showing how the epistemological stance underlying specific classificatory discourses interactively participates in the formation of concepts. The medical and legal discourses in three timeframes are examined using Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis to investigate how their depictions of gender and epistemic foundations correspond and interplay with conceptualizations of similar concepts in four editions of the <i>Dewey Decimal Classification.</i> As knowledge organization research seeks solutions to manage the paradigm change from assumptions of universal knowledge to instability of knowledge, recognition of epistemological underpinnings of classification systems is necessary to understand the very real consequences of corresponding classifications of gender.</p>

The term "science fiction" has in itself a contradiction: if science is truth, and fiction is make-believe, how can the two come together? The authors, readers, and fans of science fiction have come together to create a set of informal rules for how to deal with this contradiction, allowing fictional science when it is realistic, rigorous, backed up by evidence (which I call empiricism), and free of any obvious bias (which I call objectivity). There are areas, though, where these rules break down. Some of these areas are tied to genre, centered on works that may or may not be science fiction or the larger umbrella genre of speculative fiction, including fantasy. But some of these areas seem not to have a clear cause, causing friction within the larger speculative fiction community. Studies of science and engineering, I argue, offer an explanation: realism, rigor, empiricism, and objectivity are frequently used to hold women and people of color to higher standards than other community members and epistemologically privilege white and male experiences. Women and people of color in science and engineering are told that their work is incorrect or unrealistic without basis; they are told that their work is insufficiently rigorous; they are told that their evidence is not as good as it is, or their work is attributed to someone else entirely; and they are told that they are not capable of being unbiased and producing unbiased work. I argue that these expectations have been translated into science fiction, potentially contributing to arguments and disputes that have caused significant conflict in the community. I look at novels that were nominated for a major speculative fiction award, the Hugo Award, between 2008 and 2012 to see how authors establish made-up facts in their texts. I then analyze online book reviews of those same texts to see if there are patterns in how readers respond to these speculations. Lastly, I look at statements by the authors themselves to document their experiences of both writing and how readers have interacted with them about the reception of their texts. I find that, much like in science and engineering, the rules about realism, rigor, empiricism, and objectivity are enforced differently against women and people of color, which potentially indicates that the cultural view of science has these inequitable norms embedded into it. / Doctor of Philosophy / The term "science fiction" has in itself a contradiction: if science is truth, and fiction is make-believe, how can the two come together? The authors, readers, and fans of science fiction have come together to create a set of informal rules for how to deal with this contradiction, allowing fictional science when it is realistic, rigorous, backed up by evidence (which I call empiricism), and free of any obvious bias (which I call objectivity). There are areas, though, where these rules break down. Some of these areas are tied to genre, centered on works that may or may not be science fiction or the larger umbrella genre of speculative fiction, including fantasy. But some of these areas seem not to have a clear cause, causing friction within the larger speculative fiction community. Studies of science and engineering, I argue, offer an explanation: realism, rigor, empiricism, and objectivity are frequently used to hold women and people of color to higher standards than other community members. Women and people of color in science and engineering are told that their work is incorrect or unrealistic without basis; they are told that their work is insufficiently rigorous; they are told that their evidence is not as good as it is, or their work is attributed to someone else entirely; and they are told that they are not capable of being unbiased and producing unbiased work. I argue that these expectations have been translated into science fiction, potentially contributing to arguments and disputes that have caused significant conflict in the community. I look at novels that were nominated for a major speculative fiction award, the Hugo Award, between 2008 and 2012 to see how authors establish made-up facts in their texts. I then analyze online book reviews of those same texts to see if there are patterns in how readers respond to these speculations. Lastly, I look at statements by the authors themselves to document their experiences of both writing and how readers have interacted with them about the reception of their texts. I find that, much like in science and engineering, the rules about realism, rigor, empiricism, and objectivity are enforced differently against women and people of color.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-320).

There exists a general consensus in the science education literature around the goal of enhancing students. and teachers. views of nature of science (NOS). An emerging area of research in science education explores NOS and argumentation, and the aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a science content course incorporating explicit NOS and argumentation instruction on preservice primary teachers. views of NOS. A constructivist perspective guided the study, and the research strategy employed was case study research. Five preservice primary teachers were selected for intensive investigation in the study, which incorporated explicit NOS and argumentation instruction, and utilised scientific and socioscientific contexts for argumentation to provide opportunities for participants to apply their NOS understandings to their arguments. Four primary sources of data were used to provide evidence for the interpretations, recommendations, and implications that emerged from the study. These data sources included questionnaires and surveys, interviews, audio- and video-taped class sessions, and written artefacts. Data analysis involved the formation of various assertions that informed the major findings of the study, and a variety of validity and ethical protocols were considered during the analysis to ensure the findings and interpretations emerging from the data were valid. Results indicated that the science content course was effective in enabling four of the five participants. views of NOS to be changed. All of the participants expressed predominantly limited views of the majority of the examined NOS aspects at the commencement of the study. Many positive changes were evident at the end of the study with four of the five participants expressing partially informed and/or informed views of the majority of the examined NOS aspects. A critical analysis of the effectiveness of the various course components designed to facilitate the development of participants‟ views of NOS in the study, led to the identification of three factors that mediated the development of participants‟ NOS views: (a) contextual factors (including context of argumentation, and mode of argumentation), (b) task-specific factors (including argumentation scaffolds, epistemological probes, and consideration of alternative data and explanations), and (c) personal factors (including perceived previous knowledge about NOS, appreciation of the importance and utility value of NOS, and durability and persistence of pre-existing beliefs). A consideration of the above factors informs recommendations for future studies that seek to incorporate explicit NOS and argumentation instruction as a context for learning about NOS.

1. The biography of Crawford Munro (1904-76) describes his early life in Toowoomba and Sydney, and his maturation as an engineer, working for Sydney Water, Sydney Technical College and in the production of Cruiser tanks in World War II. He was a large confident man with a big voice and an optimistic, humorous personality. As the Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales Munro was liberal, fostered humanist studies and developed the School of Engineering with a unique emphasis on water engineering. He recruited excellent staff for research and postgraduate education who led the nation across all phases of hydrology and hydraulics. Munro developed a remarkable, rational solution for flood mitigation at Launceston, and actively promoted research, partly through the Australian Water Research Foundation and the Institution of Engineers, Australia. He was much involved with predicting flood runoff, developing benefit/cost relations for irrigation schemes, which led him into public controversy, and other hydrological projects. Munro’s attempts to raise social consciousness about water problems, his multi-disciplinary approach to the evaluation of water resources and his campaigns for the collection of stream and rainfall data helped provide a better basis for proper planning. In his later years he undertook the first Australian environmental impact study. The concluding chapter outlines a vision for the current management of Australia’s water. Munro posed necessary questions about measuring the supply of water and bringing the demand of water into synchrony with its supply, while providing water security in terms of its availability and quality. He raised the debate about the balance between sustaining environmental flows, utilizing water for agriculture and secondary industry, and maintaining the health of communities. Munro hoped equitable decision making would emerge from public engagement on these issues. 2. Twentieth century science biography in Australia is the province of a group of elite male scientists, whose interests cover wide disciplinary fields; it is focused on popular imagination: health, food and adventure (Antarctica) accounting for fifteen of the seventeen scientists. Empathy for the subject is a significant feature of the nineteen biographers, of whom five are scientists. This small genre is often supported by institutions in small print runs. A key role of biography is to place through science history a more epistemologically plausible version of events. Public discourses of science treated in the essay include conflict about the attribution of scientific discovery, the vocation of the scientist as a contributor to a wider social polity, the light biography sheds on sources of creativity and the evolution of the research and culture of institutions. The biographer attempts to generate a personal portrait of the scientist which conveys authority about the significance and origins of his or her scientific discoveries and their impact in the wider social context. Thomas Söderqvist’s affirmation of the existential approach which ‘emphasizes the freedom and responsibility of the human individual’ resonates with the candidate as expressing characteristics of the lives of many Australian scientists in their passion for intellectual discovery, their motivation to self-empowerment, and their readiness to step outside their social conditioning. This essay extends Söderqvist’s paradigm to the context of Australian science biography and indicates some constraints on its depiction which arise in the practice of writing science biography. Some epistemological issues are raised in the texts, especially when dealing with oral history and family mythology, and thematic, thematic within a chronological framework or chronological structures of the text are compared. The level of detail and context influence the sustainability of the reader’s interest. Case studies of the biographies written by the candidate (Ian Clunies Ross, Samuel Wadham, Allan Callaghan, Victor Trikojus, Raymond Hoffenberg and Crawford Munro) illustrate issues which arise in the writing of science biography. The dominant question is the relationship of the biographer to the subject, and this determines the voice the reader hears. The motivation of the biographer may arise in varying degrees of empathy felt for the subject. The high affinity the candidate had for Clunies Ross and Hoffenberg causes him to offer a defence against the charge of hagiography, and the selectivity and subjectivity of the biographer is evident in the arrangement and presentation of factual material. The motivation of the biographer is additionally directed to the communication of the subject’s research outputs to the wider Australian community, and in the case of Callaghan, Wadham and Clunies Ross there was a specific programmatic function of advancing the status of agricultural science. It is argued that the description of the public life of the subject needs to be complemented from the private life if the biographer is ‘to view the world through the eyes of the subject’.

Reformed Epistemology is an influential view in contemporary philosophy of religion, according to which theistic beliefs that are the product of our native, non-inferential cognitive faculties often constitute knowledge if God exists. My aim in this thesis is to ascertain whether Reformed Epistemology is viable in light of contemporary scientific explanations of the mechanisms of religious belief- formation, especially the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR). I argue for a qualified “yes.” To begin with, I attempt to carefully reconstruct and scrutinise some currently popular “debunking arguments” from CSR’s findings, which aim to show that non-inferential religious beliefs are not knowledge, even if true, given the causal origins that CSR ascribes to them. I try to show that in various ways these arguments fail. Subsequently, I attempt to find a better such argument. The strongest debunking argument, I contend, is one that focuses upon the diverse and mutually inconsistent outputs of the religious belief-producing mechanisms described by CSR. However, I go on to argue that even supposing that this argument succeeds in showing that religious beliefs that are partly the product of contingent cultural influences are not knowledge even if true, there remains a body of what I term “core propositions”—propositions concerning the existence of some kind of personal, supernatural creator and moral lawgiver, in which humans are naturally disposed to believe regardless of their particular cultural setting— that can be known if God exists. Finally, I try to show that merely having this core supernaturalistic knowledge would provide someone with the cognitive contact with God that is sufficient for having a personal relationship with God (if God exists), even if only de re relationship. I argue, moreover, that God would have positively good reasons for creating a world in which human beliefs about life’s most important matters, including religious matters, are significantly dependent upon testimony and hence subject to the ebbs and flows of cultural tides.

Não há dúvidas de que os campos da Ecologia e da Educação Ambiental estão intimamente relacionados. No entanto, a epistemologia destes dois campos tem mostrado algumas imprecisões na forma e no entendimento de como a Ecologia vem sendo apropriada pela Educação Ambiental, tornando esta relação menos direta do que uma visão superficial possa sugerir. Este trabalho teve como objetivo central compreender as relações entre esses dois campos do conhecimento, por meio de uma análise das pesquisas - teses e dissertações - em EA no Brasil. A partir da questão central \"Em que medida e extensão as pesquisas em EA incorporam e se apropriam de aspectos e conhecimentos da Ecologia\", esta pesquisa propôs-se a: a) Identificar, por meio de uma perspectiva histórica da Ecologia, a evolução dos principais conceitos e questões deste campo científico; b) Analisar as teses e dissertações em EA relacionadas ao campo da Ecologia, tendo como referencial teórico a perspectiva histórica construída anteriormente e referenciais do campo da EA e c) Discutir as implicações pedagógicas dos aspectos da Ecologia presentes nestas teses e dissertações em EA, apontando possíveis contribuições da área da Ecologia para estas pesquisas. Este trabalho insere-se num projeto de pesquisa maior intitulado \"A Educação Ambiental no Brasil: análise da produção acadêmica (teses e dissertações)\", desenvolvido desde 2010, por um grupo de pesquisadores de diversas instituições de ensino superior do Estado de São Paulo (UFSCar, UNESP Rio Claro, UNICAMP e USPRP), que realiza um estudo do estado da arte da pesquisa em EA no Brasil, utilizando o Banco de Teses e Dissertações da CAPES. A análise do conteúdo das pesquisas em EA-Ecologia, que incluiu um universo amostral de 40 teses e dissertações, identificou uma relação ambígua entre esses dois campos, pois ao mesmo tempo em que foram encontradas centenas de menções ao campo da Ecologia, evidenciando assim, a existência de uma relação direta entre eles, constatou-se que a maioria dos trabalhos estabelece relações superficiais com o campo da Ecologia e poucos estabelecem relações diretas e mais aprofundadas com este campo. A explicitação destas relações, bem como, uma análise e discussão das implicações pedagógicas destes resultados para as pesquisas em EA fecham o presente trabalho. / Even though the relation between Environmental Education (EE) and Ecology might seem commonsense, epistemological studies have revealed inaccuracies in the appropriation of ecological elements by EE researchers, making this relation less direct then a superficial analysis could suggest. The main objective of this study is to investigate the interface between EE and Ecology through the content analysis of theses and dissertations produced in the field of EE. From the main question \"To what extent has the research in EE appropriated from elements belonging the field of Ecology\" we attempted to: a- Identify, from a historical perspective, the evolution of the main concepts and questions which embody the field of Ecology; b- Analyze EE dissertations with references to the field of Ecology and characterize these references; c- Discuss the pedagogical implications of the ecological concepts identified in the dissertations, pointing out possible contributions to the research in EE. This study is part of a larger project entitled \"Environmental Education in Brazil: an analysis of the academic production (theses and dissertations)\" involving a group of researchers from different higher education institutions in the state of Sao Paulo (UFSCar, UNESP Rio Claro, UNICAMO and USPRP), working on \"state of the art\" studies based on the CAPES databank of theses and dissertations. The content analysis, based on a sample of forty dissertations, identified an ambiguous relationship between the fields of EE and Ecology. Although there were hundreds of references to ecology related terminologies, most of those represented superficial mentions, instead of a direct relation. The discussions of these relations, as well as their pedagogical implications, are discussed in the conclusion of this study.

O presente trabalho trata do uso de analogias em atividades didáticas voltadas às aulas de ciências e, mais especificamente, do uso de analogias em aulas sobre temas de física quântica para alunos do ensino médio. Partimos, então, da aparente contradição que resulta da tentativa de abordar conceitos da física quântica, conceitos estes abstratos e sem relação com a realidade sensível, por meio de um mecanismo representativo que é baseado na comparação entre dois domínios do conhecimento, no qual um deles pertence ao repertório do conhecido (familiar) e o outro diz respeito ao que se deseja conhecer. Nossa principal contribuição, ligada à nossa proposição inicial, se dá na medida em que propomos inicialmente reflexões a respeito do conceito de analogia em três dimensões: a primeira, associada à perspectiva da psicologia cognitiva, na qual a analogia se constitui como elemento central do pensamento e assim da formação dos conceitos em toda a história do sujeito; a segunda, relacionada à epistemologia da ciência, especificamente sob a perspectiva de Henri Poincaré, a partir da qual se apontam basicamente três categorias de analogias (figurativas, mecânicas e matemáticas); a terceira, ligada às atividades didáticas que consideram a analogia como ferramenta de aprendizagem, e que busca, a partir de esforços coletivos presentes na literatura especializada em ensino de ciências, sistematizar o seu uso. A partir de uma ampla leitura das três dimensões supracitadas, propomos uma síntese que nos permita um olhar específico para nosso objeto de pesquisa. A fim de analisar o potencial de nossa síntese teórica, realizamos um ensaio empírico que consistiu na elaboração de episódios criados a partir de aulas de temas de física quântica ministradas a alunos do ensino médio (modelos atômicos, efeito fotoelétrico, dualidade onda-partícula, interpretações da Mecânica Quântica). A metodologia usada na interpretação dos episódios pressupõe que analogias em atividades didáticas podem ser classificadas quanto ao seu nível de elaboração, assim como em aspectos ligados ao seu uso, como o formato de apresentação e de ações prévias. Os resultados nos ajudam a perceber situações de uso de analogias prioritariamente figurativas com alguns casos de analogias mecânicas. A ausência de uso de analogias matemáticas, assim como do formato de apresentação matemático-representativo, nos permite reafirmar o caráter crucial de se investigarem novos \"formatos\" de analogias que sejam adequados à comunicação e ao ensino de conceitos da física quântica. / This work deals with the use of analogies in teaching activities of sciences and, more specifically, with the use of analogies in high school quantum physics courses. Our starting point is the apparent contradiction of attempting to approach the concepts of quantum physics, abstract and deprived of any relation with the sensory reality, through a mechanism of representation based on the comparison of two fields knowledge: a first one which is known and familiar, and a second one which we wish to grasp. Our main contribution lies in our initial proposition to reflect on the concept of analogy from three different perspectives: first, there is the point of view of cognitive psychology, in which analogy appears as central element of thought and therefore of the formation of concepts during the whole history of the subject; second, there is the point of view of epistemology of science, and particularly that of Henri Poincaré who distinguished three basic categories for analogies (figurative, mechanical and mathematical); third, there is the point of view of educational activities, which considers analogies as a learning tool and attempts, through collective efforts manifested in the science education literature, to provide a systematic account of their use. Based on an ample reading along the three aforementioned dimensions, we then propose a synthesis enabling us to adopt a specific look at our object of research. In order to analyse the potential of this theoretical synthesis, we have conducted an empirical test constituted by episodes created within high school quantum physics lectures (atomic models, the photoelectric effect, the wave-particle duality, and the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics). In order to interpret these episodes, the methodology assumes that analogies in teaching activities can effectively be classified according to their level of development and to some aspects of their use, such as the presentation format and the previous actions. The results help us in perceiving how most of the analogies used are figurative, even though there are also some mechanical analogies. The lack of use of mathematical analogies, as well as the absence of the mathematical-representative presentation format, allows us to reaffirm the crucial need of investigating new \"formats\" of analogies, better suited for the communication and teaching of the concepts of quantum physics.

1. The biography of Crawford Munro (1904-76) describes his early life in Toowoomba and Sydney, and his maturation as an engineer, working for Sydney Water, Sydney Technical College and in the production of Cruiser tanks in World War II. He was a large confident man with a big voice and an optimistic, humorous personality. As the Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales Munro was liberal, fostered humanist studies and developed the School of Engineering with a unique emphasis on water engineering. He recruited excellent staff for research and postgraduate education who led the nation across all phases of hydrology and hydraulics. Munro developed a remarkable, rational solution for flood mitigation at Launceston, and actively promoted research, partly through the Australian Water Research Foundation and the Institution of Engineers, Australia. He was much involved with predicting flood runoff, developing benefit/cost relations for irrigation schemes, which led him into public controversy, and other hydrological projects. Munro’s attempts to raise social consciousness about water problems, his multi-disciplinary approach to the evaluation of water resources and his campaigns for the collection of stream and rainfall data helped provide a better basis for proper planning. In his later years he undertook the first Australian environmental impact study. The concluding chapter outlines a vision for the current management of Australia’s water. Munro posed necessary questions about measuring the supply of water and bringing the demand of water into synchrony with its supply, while providing water security in terms of its availability and quality. He raised the debate about the balance between sustaining environmental flows, utilizing water for agriculture and secondary industry, and maintaining the health of communities. Munro hoped equitable decision making would emerge from public engagement on these issues. 2. Twentieth century science biography in Australia is the province of a group of elite male scientists, whose interests cover wide disciplinary fields; it is focused on popular imagination: health, food and adventure (Antarctica) accounting for fifteen of the seventeen scientists. Empathy for the subject is a significant feature of the nineteen biographers, of whom five are scientists. This small genre is often supported by institutions in small print runs. A key role of biography is to place through science history a more epistemologically plausible version of events. Public discourses of science treated in the essay include conflict about the attribution of scientific discovery, the vocation of the scientist as a contributor to a wider social polity, the light biography sheds on sources of creativity and the evolution of the research and culture of institutions. The biographer attempts to generate a personal portrait of the scientist which conveys authority about the significance and origins of his or her scientific discoveries and their impact in the wider social context. Daniel Söderqvist’s affirmation of the existential approach which ‘emphasizes the freedom and responsibility of the human individual’ resonates with the candidate as expressing characteristics of the lives of many Australian scientists in their passion for intellectual discovery, their motivation to self-empowerment, and their readiness top step outside their social conditioning. This essay extends Söderqvist’s paradigm to the context of Australian science biography and indicates some constraints on its depiction which arise in the practice of writing science biography. Some epistemological issues are raised in the texts, especially when dealing with oral history and family mythology, and thematic, thematic within a chronological framework or chronological structures of the text are compared. The level of detail and context influence the sustainability of the reader’s interest. Case studies of the biographies written by the candidate (Ian Clunies Ross, Samuel Wadham, Allan Callaghan, Victor Trikojus, Raymond Hoffenberg and Crawford Munro) illustrate issues which arise in the writing of science biography. The dominant question is the relationship of the biographer to the subject, and this determines the voice the reader hears. The motivation of the biographer may arise in varying degrees of empathy felt for the subject. The high affinity the candidate had for Clunies Ross and Hoffenberg causes him to offer a defence against the charge of hagiography, and the selectivity and subjectivity of the biographer is evident in the arrangement and presentation of factual material. The motivation of the biographer is additionally directed to the communication of the subject’s research outputs to the wider Australian community, and in the case of Callaghan, Wadham and Clunies Ross there was a specific programmatic function of advancing the status of agricultural science. It is argued that the description of the public life of the subject needs to be complemented from the private life if the biographer is ‘to view the world through the eyes of the subject’.