The Periodic System and the Nature of Science: The History of the Periodic System in Spanish and Norwegian Secondary School Textbooks

Abstract

This essay analyses 31 science and chemistry textbooks from Spain and Norway with respect to their presentations of the history of the periodic system and what these presentations can teach students about the Nature of Science (NOS). The analysis is based on the SOURCE framework, where each letter in SOURCE represents an element from the history of science and corresponding attributes of NOS. Our comparative analysis reveals large differences in the role of history of chemistry between the Spanish and Norwegian teaching contexts, and similar differences in their inclusion of historical aspects in curricula and textbooks. We argue that the lack of references to women, to errors and to failures in the history of the periodic system represents missed opportunities to discuss chemistry as a tentative, collective and socio-cultural enterprise.