Abstract
The author has been invited to write a history of the Science Teachers Association of Victoria which celebrates its 50th year in 1993. He explores the idea of a useful history which addresses present-future concerns which persist, and contrasts this with an authentic history of the past committed to understanding a period. What can be enlisted to help us respond to our current dilemmas are the emblematic characters amongst the agents of change to whom we can speak, and there are the artefacts and their meaning in contemporary discussions abstracted from the record of their past which is not restricted to their contingent circumstances or to their authentic utterances. There remains the question of how to write the history. Is it to be essentially a narrative constructed from stories or a history of ideas based on words of the ongoing conversation amongst those engaged in it, about science teaching?
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Specializations: studies in twentieth century science education in Australia, teacher education.
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Fawns, R.A. Stories tell but words conceal—Aspects of historiographical research. Research in Science Education 21, 74–79 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02360459
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02360459