Discourse, the moral imperative and Faraday’s candle

This commentary considers two lines of inquiry into the work of Ideland and Malmberg: the role of discourse in shaping teachers’ responses to Roberts’ (2011) Visions of Science and the moral imperatives that will accompany any shifts between Vision I and II. Vision I of science has accreted to itself great power and prestige, both of which shape notions of a ‘good’ science education. Any shift towards Vision II will require serious engagement in a Foucaultian discourse into the issues of power, inclusion and exclusion that Ideland and Malmberg describe. Similarly, the moral imperatives that arise require courage to both contest the status quo in science education, and develop a reasoned, morally defensible, response to the challenge that Vision II is really a form of ideological activism.