The relation between science, technology and society in textbooks of sciences and technology in Secondary School

Abstract

Since they appeared, the studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS) have been interested in education as the key to help the citizens of tomorrow to participate in the discussions dealing with the future of technoscience. In Spain, the STS subjects became part of the secondary school programmes since the educational reform. Nevertheless, the analysis of the text books used in Catalonia shows that a deterministic vision of science and technology ?both of them thought as entities with their own logic of development, independent from social reality? coexists with a neutralistic conception, which considers technoscience as a basic tool that can be used by humanity either in a correct or an incorrect way. The student has the perception that science and technology shape the social reality, but that are somehow independent from society.