Citizenship, Inquiry and Responsibility in socio-scientific issues : an analysis of Swedish biology curriculum

Abstract

During the last years the so called 21st century skills have been emphasized in both policy documents and science education research. The development of these skills among citizens in Europe has been supported by the European Union through different education and research programmes (EU, 2015). This paper analyzes if four aspects (citizenship education (CE), inquiry-based science education (IBSE), responsible research and innovation (RRI) and socio-scientific issues (SSI)) from a theoretical framework in one of those EU-funded projects (PARRISE) are integrated in the Swedish biology curriculum in lower secondary school (The national agency for education, 2011). The research question was: To what extent are CE, IBSE, RRI and SSI integrated in the national biology education curriculum in Sweden? The curriculum in biology for lower secondary school in Sweden has been analyzed. In focus for the content analysis of the curriculum has been the four major aspects; CE, IBSE, RRI SSI. Aims, core content and knowledge requirements have been studied. The four aspects from the project framework are to large extent expressed in the Swedish biology curriculum. The aspects IBSE and SSI dominate the curriculum. However, the RRI aspects are not explicitly expressed. The Swedish biology curriculum is well-adapted to the thoughts that are expressed in the 21st century skills and articulated in the project as four aspects.