Ma recherche a pour but de faire le point sur les derniers développements de l’historical epistemology, modalité d’enquête de la connaissance qui a émergée au cours du XX siècle au sein de l’épistémologie française et qui reste actuellement active dans une variété de formes. En dépit de son succès auprès de nombreux auteurs contemporains, l’épistémologie historique ne bénéficie encore d’aucune systématisation ni d’aucune liste d’auteurs et d’ouvrages canoniques. Mon travail de thèse se propose de traiter directement la question même de la légitimité et de l’originalité de ce type d’épistémologie en discutant sa nature, sa méthodologie et son unité. En analysant les ouvrages les plus importants dans ce domaine, j’accorderai un rôle central d’un coté à Michel Foucault et de l’autre à Ian Hacking, qui, à maintes égards, ont entretenu des rapports complexes, controversés, et pourtant révélateurs, avec l’épistémologie historique. Les deux phases de l’épistémologie historique, l’une « originaire » et l’autre « contemporaine », seront analysées dans un rapport biunivoque, dans un souci de clarification réciproque. Le développement à l’étranger de l’épistémologie historique dans sa phase contemporaine a créé une sorte de vide et une perte d’intérêt étonnante dans son lieu de naissance. La reconnexion de ce type d’épistémologie au cadre philosophique originel de son émergence représente l’occasion de ré-ouvrir le débat en France. / What is historical epistemology? Why does this field, despite its current proliferation,seem to be permanently haunted by questions relative to its nature, limits and ultimatetasks? What kind of historicization is at stake in this sort of inquiry? What is the relationbetween contemporary historical epistemology, as it is practiced by a growing number ofEnglish-speaking historians and philosophers of science, and the French “tradition” ofépistémologie historique? To address these questions, my research aims to provide arecursive analysis demonstrating how the two phases of historical epistemology, the“classical” and the “contemporary”, can clarify each other. In this process, the“archaeological method” of Michel Foucault, which draws on and transforms fundamentalinsights by Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem, will be shown to exert an enduringinfluence on the field, especially through Ian Hacking and his philosophical cum historicalanalyses of probability. / Che cos’è l’epistemologia storica? Perchè questo campo, nonostante la sua proliferazione attuale, sembra essere permanentemente minacciato da questioni relative alla sua natura, ai suoi limiti e ai suoi obiettivi ultimi? Che tipo di storicizzazione caratterizza questo tipo di indagine? Qual è la relazione tra l’epistemologia storica contemporanea, come è praticata da un numero crescente di storici e filosofi della scienza di lingua inglese, e la tradizione francese dell’épistémologie historique? Per affrontare tali questioni, la mia ricerca intende fornire un’analisi ricorsiva che dimostri come le due fasi dell’epistemologia storica, quella “classica” e quella “contemporanea”, possono chiarificarsi reciprocamente. In questo processo, il “metodo archeologico” di Foucault, che trae spunto da e trasforma intuizioni fondamentali di Gaston Bachelard e Georges Canguilhem, sarà mostrato nella sua influenza su questo campo di indagine, specialmente attraverso Ian Hacking e le sue analisi storico-filosofiche della probabilità.

In 2016 the Ministry of Education in British Columbia (BC), Canada introduced the topics of quantum mechanics (QM) into the Grade 8 science curriculum. Science teachers with or without QM background are expected to learn and teach QM. Stemming from a constructivist theoretical framework, this in-depth exploratory case study explores the processes of learning and teaching the topics of QM by asking: “How does a Grade 8 science teacher learn to teach QM?” The purpose was to understand the teacher’s QM learning process, the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in QM and teacher’s views of the nature of science (NOS). The data was collected through multiple sources and analyzed by using thematic analysis. The themes were identified under five main categories: 1) the development of PCK in QM is complex, 2) the student-centered approach mandated in the redesigned curriculum may be limiting, 3) the nature of learning QM is not different than learning other subjects, 4) middle school science education is inconsistent with the current level of scientific knowledge, and 5) the development of informed views of NOS requires an accumulation and synthesis of prior knowledge in history and philosophy of science (HPS). The study proposes two previously unexplored integral aspects of PCK framework, since: the ‘allotted time’ in learning and teaching a subject and ‘pre-PCK’ change the nature of PCK development. The term pre-PCK was coined referring to the specific content oriented and student-centered activities that take place before the class with the goal of establishing an effective basis for the PCK development. The insights emerging from the study would be of interest to other Grade 8 science teachers in BC, pre-service teacher program coordinators at the universities, and the Ministry of Education in BC to provide institutional support. This study would also contribute to closing the knowledge and communication gaps between the fields of science, science education practice and science education research. / Graduate