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The epistemological framing of a discipline: Writing science in university oceanography
Author(s) -
Kelly Gregory J.,
Chen Catherine,
Prothero William
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/1098-2736(200009)37:7<691::aid-tea5>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - discipline , framing (construction) , sociology , perspective (graphical) , ethnography , scientific writing , relevance (law) , epistemology , science education , sociology of scientific knowledge , pedagogy , mathematics education , psychology , social science , linguistics , computer science , philosophy , anthropology , engineering , political science , law , structural engineering , artificial intelligence
The purpose of this paper is to examine how instruction in scientific writing in a university oceanography course communicated epistemological positions of this discipline. Drawing from sociological and anthropological studies of scientific communities, this study uses an ethnographic perspective to explore how teachers and students came to define particular views of disciplinary knowledge through the everyday practices associated with teaching and learning oceanography. Writing in a scientific genre was supported by interactive CD‐ROM which allowed students to access data representations from geological databases. In our analysis of the spoken and written discourse of the members of this course, we identified epistemological issues such as uses of evidence, role of expertise, relevance of point of view, and limits to the authority of disciplinary inquiry. Implications for college science teaching are drawn. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 691–718, 2000