Scientific School Culture for Sustainable Society

Within the framework of the project, it is planned to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the current situation and to develop a new tool for evaluating the scientific school culture at the level of secondary education in Latvia. The scientific school culture is seen as a relatively stable set of norms, values and practices formed by the interaction of individuals involved in the educational process (teachers, students, parents) and various contextual factors (political, cultural, legal, and historical).

Agnese Dāvidsone, associate professor of ViA, states that “one of the key tasks of the project is to study how science is understood at the level of secondary schools and how it is integrated not only in the exact fields such as mathematics, but also in the areas of language, social sciences and arts. In the course of research, we will gain a better understanding of the teachers’ scientific identity, scientific proficiency, their attitude towards science and other aspects. We will examine the understanding and attitude of students and their parents towards science. We will study the impact of the environment by an extensive analysis of the policy planning documents, educational normative framework and teacher education programs, identifying how the role and tasks of science in education are defined in various documents”.

The results of the project will be scientific publications, conference reports as well as a model for the evaluation of scientific school culture in secondary education developed and tested in a pilot study. Proposals for policy changes and improvements in in-service teacher education programs will be developed and discussed with policy makers, education NGOs and other stakeholders.

The project will be implemented in cooperation with researchers and doctoral students of the Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Art of the University of Latvia. A diaspora representative from the University of Lapland in Finland will also be involved in the project.

The project is funded by the Fundamental and Applied Research Program of the Latvian Council of Science. The total project funding is 299,999 euros. The project will be implemented by the end of 2024.

For more information:

Agnese Dāvidsone

Research project “Scientific School Culture for Sustainable Society” No. LZP-2021/1-0135

Scientific manager of the project

[email protected]