Publication as dialogue and learning: The role of papers in science education

Abstract

Framed in Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue as an interaction where each participant takes into account the other (or others) ideas, this paper has a double objective: first to evaluate the central role of the journal Enseñanza de las Ciencias in the 25 years since it was first launched, as well as to identify some trends in its evolution. Second, it advances a proposal, based in studies about writing science (Bazerman, 1989 Myers, 1990) about the features that papers should possess in order to contribute to a true dialogue in the community concerned with the problems about learning and teaching science.