History/ Philosophy and Science Teaching: A Personal Story | Michael Matthews

Tomas de Aquino por Bartolome Science Teaching
Tomás de Aquino | Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1650)

History, Philosophy and Science Teaching: A Personal Story is a captivating academic autobiography, published in 2021, by Michael R. Matthews, Australian philosopher of education, known for his contribution to the advancement of the use of history and philosophy of science to enhance science education. As Matthews chronicles his own intellectual and career trajectory, he ends up outlining the history of the research in History and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching (HPS&ST). I began my own journey into HPS&ST around 2009, as I moved to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, to pursue a PhD at the Graduate Program in Teaching, Philosophy and History of Sciences UFBA-UEFS2 – after having already been well trained in the history and philosophy of science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) over ten years. In what follows, I endeavor to outline a personal review of Matthews’ book: History, Philosophy and Science Teaching: A Personal Story.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mathews twice after beginning my journey into HPS&ST. Firstly, in 2010, at a time I was still a novice in HPS&ST research, on the occasion of the 1st Latin American Conference of the International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Group, which took place in Maresias, Brazil. A few years later, in 2012, in Boston, USA, when I was a Fulbright visiting scholar at STS MIT, I attended a colloquium at the Boston University’s Center for Philosophy and History of Science, where Matthews gave a talk entitled “HPS&ST: Looking Back and Going Forward”. Leia Mais