Didactics of Science in Latin America

In this chapter, I critically examine some outstanding aspects of the “state of the art” of didactics of (natural or experimental) science in Latin America. I base my characterization on a broad corpus, intentionally selected, constituted from systematic reviews and meta-analyses, epistemological and metatheoretical studies, handbooks and books of proceedings, textbooks for teacher education, curricula of postgraduate programs, testimonials from veteran researchers, and working documents emanating from our academic community. Such a corpus includes materials from 1980 onwards, although I place special emphasis on the production of the twenty-first century, when didactics consolidates as a scientific discipline internationally. On the basis of a synoptic analysis of the set of collected materials, I characterize some of the established and emerging lines of work within the regional community of research in didactics of science. At the same time, I inspect the traditions, orientations and styles of didactical research in our continent. Finally, I discuss the possibility of identifying a research agenda for our discipline “in”, “of” and “for” Latin America, with original productions from our countries that can have an impact on the international arena.