Abstract
Using structural linguistics, the present article offers an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. In Japan, science education has been free from epistemological reflection because Japan regards science only as effective technology for modernization. By not taking account of the world-view aspect of science, Japan can treat science as not self-referential. Issues of science education are then rather simple; they are only concerned with the question of ‘how to’, and answers to this question are judged according to the efficiency achieved for modernization.
Science, however, is a way of seeing ‘nature’. This word is generally translated into Japanese as ‘shizen’ which has a totally different connotation and therefore does not lead to an understanding of the Western scientific spirit. Saussure's approach to language is used to expose the consequences of the misinterpretations that spring from this situation. In order to minimize or prevent these misinterpretations, it is emphasized that science education should be identified with foreign language education in the non-Western world.
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Kawasaki, K. The concepts of science in Japanese and Western education. Sci Educ 5, 1–20 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426437
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00426437