My reserach interests connects to the role of different communicative resources and visual representations in connection to learning of science. In later years I have worked with questions concerning scientific literacy, especially in relation to science content in media. I also have an interest in how socio-scientific issues can be used in school science.

Research projects

PARISSE (Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research & Innovation in Science Education)

To build a scientifically literate society, which enables its citizens to participate in the research and innovation process, calls for empowered democratic citizens who are able to engage in socio-scientific inquiry and debate. Education through an inquiry approach in science and technology prepares young citizens to participate in socio-scientific debate, and thus contribute to citizens’ agency. For this purpose, students need to have an understanding of the process and products of science and technology and to appreciate them as human endeavour. In addition, students need to exercise informed decision-making considering and balancing relevant facts, interests, values, costs and benefits. The PARRISE (Promoting Attainment of Responsible Research & Innovation in Science Education) project aims at introducing the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation in primary and secondary education. It does so by combining inquiry-based learning and citizenship education with socio-scientific issues in science education. The project also aims to collect and share existing best practices across Europe and develop learning tools, materials and in/pre-service training courses for science teachers based on the SSIBL approach. Our project objectives are: Provide an overall educational framework for socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL) in formal and informal learning environments; Identify examples of best practice; Build transnational communities consisting of science teachers, science teacher educators, science communicators, and curriculum and citizenship education experts to implement good practices of SSIBL; Develop the SSIBL competencies among European primary and secondary science teachers and teacher educators; Disseminate resources and best practice through PARRISE website, digital and print-based publications online and face to face courses authored by national and international networks; Evaluate the educators’ success using the improved SSIBL materials with pre-service and in-service teachers. The PARRISE educational methodology seeks to promote democratic citizenship through the integration of social issues and related scientific knowledge. Drawing from recently acquired IBSE insights and individual partner expertise, PARRISE seeks to collectively develop a community of learners, who will bring together selected best practices examined from a Research and Responsible Innovation perspective. The consortium reflects a multidisciplinary team who will facilitate networking activities among teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers of 18 institutions in 11 countries.

Project leaders: Marie-Christine Knippels & Frans Van Dam, Utrecht University

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Science and Moral Inquiry as the Yin and Yang of SSI Education: Two Examples of SSI Research from Sweden

  2024. Carl-Johan Rundgren, Shu-Nu Chang Rundgren. A Moral Inquiry into Epistemic Insights inScience Education, 311-332

  Chapter

  This chapter reflects on the contribution of science education by means of socio scientific issues (SSI) to global citizenship education and education for sustainability from a Swedish research perspective. The relation between what science inquiry and moral inquiry may entail in SSI for educating our future citizens is discussed. We argue that equipping citizens not only with factual knowledge, but also training them to act with moral reflection, has become an even more important goal for education due to the current planetary emergency. Ethics/morality are of special importance for SSI argumentation, but research is still limited concerning how people’s knowledge, value and personal experience are related to ethics/morality in SSI argumentation and how moral inquiry can be further enhanced through education. The chapter is composed of three main parts. First, SSI related research, practices and policy in Sweden are briefly presented. Second, two empirical studies from Sweden are presented as examples to further reveal the complexity of people’s knowledge, value and personal experience in relation to science and moral inquiry. Last, a didactic model for science and moral inquiry via SSI is presented to promote reflective and responsible citizens for sustainability and Bildung globally. In the chapter, science and moral inquiry are seen as intertwined in SSI education, as two entities which presuppose each other like the Yin and Yang in Daoist Chinese philosophy.

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• Views About Scientific Inquiry

  2021. Jakob Gyllenpalm (et al.). Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research

  Article

  This paper analyses data from the Swedish sample of the international VASI (Views about scientific inquiry) study (Lederman et al. [2019]. An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students’ understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Published online. https://doi. org/10.1002/tea.21512). Understandings about scientific inquiry involve knowledge about the processes of inquiry, and are not the same as being able to do inquiry although these are related domains. This paper focuses on what students know about scientific inquiry and what impact school science may have on this knowledge. Data were collected using the VASI instrument developed previously and was administered to 126 students at the beginning of year seven and 145 students at the end of year 12 in a cross-sectional design. Results indicate that the majority of students do not have an informed understanding of key aspects of scientific inquiry in either grade. Although students in year 12 are more informed, the average is still less than 50% as measured by the VASI and with a large spread. 

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• 'Traveling nutrients'

  2020. Alma Jahic Pettersson, Kristina Danielsson, Carl-Johan Rundgren. International Journal of Science Education 41 (8), 1281-1301

  Article

  Previous research suggests that students use metaphors when asked to explain digestive processes and nutritional uptake. In this paper, we describe the results of a study designed to gain a deeper understanding of how metaphors and anthropomorphisms are used by students when describing such processes. We applied analyses based on the systemic-functional grammar framework to 123 student responses to a question about nutrition on a Swedish national test in biology in order to identify, describe and analyse how students use metaphors and to understand the linguistic structure of those metaphors. We also considered how the metaphors are linked to metaphor systems and anthropomorphisms, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the role of metaphors in this area. The results of our analyses provide important insights into how students understand digestion and nutrition and could provide the basis for improved teaching materials and methods for these important topics.

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• Implementation of inquiry-based science education in different countries:

  2017. Carl-Johan Rundgren. Cultural Studies of Science Education

  Article

  In this forum article, I reflect on issues related to the implementation of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) in different countries. Regarding education within the European Union (EU), the Bologna system has in later years provided extended coordination and comparability at an organizational level. However, the possibility of the EU to influence the member countries regarding the actual teaching and learning in the classrooms is more limited. In later years, several EU-projects focusing on IBSE have been funded in order to make science education in Europe better, and more motivating for students. Highlighting what Heinz and her colleagues call the policy of ‘soft governance’ of the EU regarding how to improve science education in Europe, I discuss the focus on IBSE in the seventh framework projects, and how it is possible to maintain more long-lasting results in schools through well-designed teacher professional development programs. Another aspect highlighted by Heinz and her colleagues is how global pressures on convergence in education interact with educational structures and traditions in the individual countries. The rise of science and science education as a global culture, encompassing contributions from all around the world, is a phenomenon of great potential and value to humankind. However, it is important to bear in mind that if science and science education is going to become a truly global culture, local variation and differences regarding foci and applications of science in different cultures must be acknowledged.

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Show all publications by Carl-Johan Rundgren at Stockholm University