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Makale Özeti:
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School is assumed to equip students with subject knowledge and contribute to
their development as human beings and democratic citizens as well. In this article, the
democratic dimension of the teaching assignment is brought to the fore, and an analysis
tool for investigating students’ conversations on socioscientific issues that emphasises
democratic aspects is presented. The DEQUAL-tool, where the acronyms stand for
DEliberative QUALities, comprises both the content-related and formal aspects of the
conversations, with a specific emphasis on the collective expressions of democratic
qualities like questioning, consideration for others and conveying different dimensions and
arguments. DEQUAL is based on an intersubjective and communicative understanding of
democracy and meaning-making, and is theoretically inspired by John Dewey’s and Jürgen
Habermas’ views on these matters. The development and function of DEQUAL is clarified
using excerpts from upper secondary school students talking about how living in a certain
place influences the greenhouse effect. By pointing out characteristics, strengths and
weaknesses of students’ group-conversations, this methodological proposal can provide
further guidance for an integrative understanding of the teacher’s assignment in science
education.
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