Science teaching for the early years: contributions of textbooks to the school curriculum

Abstract

We seek to provide scientific and technological literacy through thematic approaches so that students can understand their existential situation and intervene in their environment. Considering textbooks as one of the main aids for educators, we investigated: how do science textbooks contribute to the thematic approach and scientific and technological literacy in the early years of elementary school? We aim to investigate how TA and STL are presented in textbooks for teaching science in the early years of elementary school. We use Freire's theoretical framework and STS assumptions. For the research, we used eleven science collections, four of which are interdisciplinary (science, history, and geography) and seven are science collections. Methodologically, we followed Discursive Textual Analysis, emerging the following categories: contributions of textbooks to teaching science in the early years, and possibilities that can be expanded by developing the thematic approach and scientific and technological literacy based on textbooks. By carrying out the research, we concluded that it is up to the educator to select the TB collection that most closely matches their reality, as well as to conduct their practice using it as a source of reference, being able to propose a different approach or experiments, problematizations and make corrections according to their needs.