The STS approach: a perspective to be included in teacher training proposals

Abstract

At this moment, when numerous technoscientific artifacts are exerting such intense effects on our lives, we have the need to construct a new profile of education that acknowledges the relationship between Science, Technology, and Society as an essential element in the process of human formation. In light of this, this text aims to analyze how the STS (Science, Technology, and Society) perspective can contribute to teacher training processes, considering the profile of contemporary society and that of current students, both marked by global hyperconnectivity. The results indicate that current students are becoming digital beings due to the intimate, deep, and intense relationship they establish with numerous technological artifacts, and that these new bodies and subjectivities are not in tune with the functioning of education, which has remained unchanged in a rapidly changing world. We also noticed that current proposals for teacher training have not been adequate and have not properly prepared these professionals to face the complexity of the educational challenges of contemporaneity. Furthermore, the assumptions of the STS approach appear as a possibility to bring about substantial changes in conceptions of curriculum, teaching, learning, and in teachers’ training processes, in addition to encouraging spaces for critical reflection on the effects of technoscientific development on society, educational practices, and the social function of education in the early 21st century.