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ABSTRACT
In this paper, we investigate how cultural, historical, and emotional factors influence scientific concepts in Brazil's Scientific Vocation Program (Provoc) and Japan's Sakura Science Program. It analyzes how Western and Eastern views of science might shape program goals through high school students' reports. Science education, history and sociology of science have been deployed to analyze documents from 2019 for both programs, and content analysis has been conducted with the assistance of ATLAS.ti software. The results indicate that different trends of the programs are important. While Provoc students' reports express the value of their practical experience leading to individual growth, either academic and/or professional, students' reports of Sakura Science tend to report more collective outcomes. Additionally, while Provoc's students are designated to have scientific initiation training, Sakura's students are selected to be trained in both scientific and technological innovation.
Keywords: Brazil, High School, Japan, Provoc-Fiocruz, Sakura Science, Science Education.
SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS
Considering previous studies that identify cultural aspects of science concepts throughout history and their impact on the understanding of scientific and technological development (Watanabe, 1974; Matsumoto, 1999; Kawasaki, 1996, 1999, 2002; Sasaki, 2010), this paper proposes a comparative analysis of two high school science education programs: Brazil's Scientific Vocation Program from Polytechnic School Joaquim Venancio (Provoc-Fiocruz) and Japan's Sakura Science Program from Japan's Science Technology Agency. This study aims to understand whether and how cultural, historical, and emotional factors help shape the understanding of the science concepts practiced in these educational programs. Specifically, the main interest lies in understanding how the experience in each program helps shape perceptions of science.
Because the notion of culture is understood as encompassing social rituals, language acquisition, emotions and history, the analysis uses science education, sociology and history of science, and content analysis approaches, which are supported by ATLAS.ti software for building analytical categories. The selection of Provoc-Fiocruz and Sakura Science for this comparative study is motivated by the interest in understanding the similarities and differences in science conceptions that guide activities within Western and Eastern cultural contexts. The literature on the history of science (Watanabe, 1970; Sasaki, 2010) and science education (Kawasaki, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2007) highlights that Western culture often separates science and technology, with science studying natural laws and technology intervening in nature, whereas...