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The interaction of students’

scientific and religious discourses:
two case studies
a
Wolff‐Michael Roth
a
Simon Fraser University and Todd Alexander, University
of Western Ontario, Canada
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To cite this article: Wolff‐Michael Roth (1997): The interaction of students’ scientific and
religious discourses: two case studies, International Journal of Science Education, 19:2,
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INT. J. sci. EDUC., 1997, VOL. 19, NO. 2, 125-146
RESEARCH REPORTS
The interaction of students' scientific and religious

discourses: two case studies
Wolff-Michael Roth, Simon Fraser University and

Todd Alexander, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Downloaded by [Yale University Library] at 06:55 22 March 2013
When students come to school they often bring understandings which actively interfere with the
curriculum offered by the formal educational setting. Although the discourses of science and religion
have often been incommensurable at the institutional level, religious discourse has rarely been studied
as a potential interference with the learning of scientific discourse at the individual level. In a two-year
study with 23 students we identified different interpretive repertoires on which pupils draw to talk in
sometimes contradictory ways about controversial issues such as abortion, euthanasia and the origins of
humankind. These contradictions may interfere with students' science learning. We illustrate in detail
two students' scientific and religious discourses.
When students come to school they often bring understandings which actively
interfere with the curriculum offered by the formal educational setting. Much
research has been conducted to try to understand how everyday talk about phe-
nomena developed prior to instruction interferes with the science talk students
encounter in school. This literature is commonly described by labels such as
'misconceptions', 'alternative frameworks', 'naive conceptions', 'pheno-
menological primitives', and 'conceptual change'. Other sources of interference
with science instruction are less charted. Thus, although the discourses of science
and that of fundamentalist Christians have often been incommensurable at the
institutional level, religious discourse has rarely been studied as a potential inter-
ference with the learning of scientific discourse at the individual level.
We engaged in this study to construct an understanding how religious dis-
course interacts with scientific classroom discourse in some students but not
others. In this study, some students made conflicting claims in their scientific
and religious discourses which they could not resolve. These conflicts interfered
with learning science. Other students developed mechanisms which allowed them
to eschew such conflicts, and others did not experience any conflicts. We expanded
a framework developed for the analysis of scientists' discourse to make it suitable
for the analysis of scientific and religious discourse. Although there appear to be
marked conflicts between scientific and religious discourses in other cultures (e.g.,
conflicts between Islam and science (Anees 1995)), 'religion' in this study refers to
public and personal dimensions of Christian faith. T o maintain the authenticity of
individuals' voices, we chose an alternate literary device that mixed authorial and
personal voices distinguished by different type faces.
0950-0693/97 $12.00 © 1997 Taylor & Francis Ltd

126 W.-M. ROTH AND T. ALEXANDER
Background
The boundary between science or technology and religion has long been the site of
individual, institutional and cultural conflict. In order to minimize the conflict at
the institutional level, some countries, such as the USA, have elevated the separa-
tion of church and state to a fundamental principle enshrined in their constitutions
(O'Connor and Ivers 1988) while other countries such as the former USSR have
consistently suppressed any role for religion. This separation at the institutional
level was also formally pronounced on behalf of organized science by the National
Academy of Science (NAS) (1984:6) in Science and Creationism. NAS took the
position that 'religion and science are separate and mutually exclusive realms of
human thought whose representation in the same context leads to misunderstand-
ing of both scientific theory and religious belief.
Although the differences between scientific and fundamentalist Christian dis-
courses have been argued repeatedly in court, little research exists with respect to
whether or not such differences might interfere with students' appropriation of
school science talk. In spite of the formal separation between science and religion,
many people do not make such a separation at the personal level (Lawson and
Wester 1990, Lawson and Worsnop 1992). Hence, when there is a conflict between
their scientific and religious knowledge, students have difficulties learning the
subject matter of their curriculum. Students with strong commitments to crea-
tionist discourse about the beginning of the universe are less prone to understand
evolutionary biology than their peers. It is alarming then that a large number of
students and university administrators favour the teaching of creationism.
Research conducted in several public universities in Ohio showed that between
80 and 94% of the students favoured the instruction of creation science (Bergman
1979, Fuerst 1984). A survey of approximately 28% of the Ohio school board
presidents revealed that more than 52% want creation science to be taught along-
side the theory of evolution, and do not believe that this means introducing reli-
gion (Zimmerman 1991).
We can then expect to have students who employ religious discourses that they
and their parents regard as incompatible with canonical scientific classroom dis-
course. These religious discourses may be even more problematic for science
instruction than students' intuitive and mundane discourse about natural phenom-
ena ('misconceptions') which are not linked to religious explanatory schemes. The
research presented in the article arose from these concerns. In the context of high
school science, we wanted to understand the interaction of scientific and religious
discourses, and students' management of conflicting knowledge claims within and
across discourse domains.
Study design
This article was developed from a data base established in the context of a two-year
longitudinal study of physics students' views about knowing and learning. The
larger study was concerned with physics students' ontological, epistemological and
sociological claims about the nature of physics knowledge, the evidence they mus-
tered in support of these claims and their views of learning. The entire data base
contains more than 2,5000 pages of transcripts (interviews and class discussions),
student essays and short responses. Four reports, each co-produced by an outside
SCIENCE AND RELIGION 127
university researcher not directly involved with the students, dealt with various
aspects of the data base (Lucas and Roth 1995, Roth and Roychoudhury 1993,
1994, Roth and Lucas 1995). The present article, co-authored by the teacher and
one of the students deals with the interaction of students' scientific and religious
discourses.
Participants and setting

From a cohort of 46 students enrolled in a junior-level physics course, 23 enrolled
in and completed a senior level physics course. Seven students, according to their
own accounts, had strong religious commitments. One of these students, Todd , is
the second author of this study. The principal author and teacher of all physics
courses at the school taught both the junior and senior year physics courses. At the
time, his preparation included an MSc in physics and a PhD. in science education,
research experience in both fields, and ten years of experience teaching science,
mathematics and computer science.
This article is unusual for educational research in that it is co-authored by a
teacher and a senior high school student. This collaboration came about in the
following way. During one of our many conversations, Todd had asked if he could
participate in the study as a researcher, for he was interested in how others talked
about science and religion. We came to an immediate agreement to work jointly on
data analysis, writing the manuscript, and conducting member check interviews
with other students. We jointly presented different aspects of our work at inter-
national conferences. Our collaboration was facilitated by a relationship of trust
that we had built over three years. While we do not deny the differences between
our life experiences and expertise in educational research, these differences were
not used to set up a relationship based on differences in power. By using individual
voices, we set apart instances where we speak with our individual voices.
Science and religion at school

At the time of the interviews, we were associated with a private all-boys' school
(Grades 4 to 13) in central Canada. In terms of academic standards, the students in
this school are not much different from those attending the surround public
schools. Boarding was compulsory for juniors and seniors. Daily chapel attendance
was compulsory for all students irrespective of religion or denomination. Although
the chaplain was an ordained minister of the Anglican Church (Church of
England), the services were non-denominational and deemed appropriate for the
collective of faiths in the student body which included Christians, Muslims,
Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Buddhists. Each morning, the 15-minute service con-
sisted of a hymn (from the Anglican hymn book) and reflections, usually presented
by an ordained priest, but at least once a week presented by a senior student.
Senior students were the chapel wardens, responsible for assuring order and keep-
ing attendance. The chapel choir was made up of students from all grades. Until
their junior year, students attended a compulsory course in religion. These
courses, part of the requirements stipulated by the Ministry of Education, focused
on various world religions without prioritizing any one of them.
The senior author along with 50% of the faculty, also lived on the school
grounds and was associated with a residence. This provided the authors with
many opportunities to meet formally and informally after school to complete this
project. Like the majority of faculty (approximately 90%), Roth did not attend the
chapel services which were optional for teachers.
Todd and Brent, along with 21 other students attended the elective junior and
senior physics courses taught by the senior author. In both the junior and senior
physics courses, about 70% of class time was devoted to experiments. Most of the
research questions were student-framed; students planned and conducted the
experiments, interpreted their data and submitted reports. The only conditions
were that they had to deal with the content matter specified by the Ministry of
Education and that they were convincing (not necessarily 'right') in terms of
design and results. The remaining class time was spent on reviewing textbook
materials and questions, preparing collaborative concept maps and discussing
supplementary readings. These included essays, individual chapters and books
such as 'Objectivity in science' (Suzuki 1989), such as 'What every school boy
should know' (Bateson 1980) and Inventing Reality: Physics as Language (Gregory
1990). These texts raised questions about the objectivity and rationality of scien-
tific inquiry and knowledge taken for granted in the students' science textbooks.
Finally, to meet the provincial requirements for proficiency in physics content, the
students read the pertinent textbook chapters on their own and completed about
six end-of-chapter questions per week.
The teacher took a very personal stance to knowing and learning. He provided
students with continuous feedback on their work, including the essays. The stu-
dents received an 'A' for the completion of an essay, but were not required to
espouse any one particular worldview. The same stance was evident in the whole-
class discussions of readings. Each discussion was intended as a forum, an oppor-
tunity for students to talk through important and difficult issues in an environment
of trust. For the teacher, it was not an issue of indoctrinating students to a different
kind of truth but presenting knowing as something personal. Elsewhere (Roth and
Lucas, 1995), more detailed evidence is provided of the non-dogmatic nature of
the class discussion and response to student essays.
Teacher and his beliefs

It has been argued that students' and teachers' epistemological commitments
interact and contribute to the classroom climate (Roth and Roychoudhury, 1993,
1994). In the following paragraphs, the teacher writes about his beliefs.
WMR: My discourse was an important aspect of the setting in which students
developed over the two years. To avoid the dangers of merely labeling my dis-
course as agnostic or atheist, we decided that I should provide a brief description.
The knowledge which we take as shared with others is socially constructed and
legitimated within and across cultures. As an educator and social scientist, I am a
member of a culture which engages in a continuous and continuously changing
discourse to establish new explanatory resources. The meanings of concepts are
not fixed, nor can they be considered as the same for all people. Idiosyncratic
variations in our discourses (used to account for 'scientific concepts' or
'religious beliefs') have to be considered the norm rather than the exception.
There is no need for the notion of a god as a discursive resource to explain the
origin, purpose and destiny of mankind. On the other hand, although I do not use
a god as a discursive resource, I consider myself (and am considered by others) as

spiritual. Through mankind, the universe inspects itself self-reflexively.
In my physics courses, I discussed with students the problematic of objectiv-
ity, the occasional character of scientific knowledge, the discursive practices of
scientists and the historical changes in scientific discourses. From these discus-
sions, the students constructed different understandings of my spiritual/religious
commitments. Some, like Todd, felt that I was committed neither to formal reli-
gion nor to atheism, but that I was deeply spiritual. Others, like Brent, thought
that I was a 'complete atheist'.
Science and religion: psychosocial setting

The two case studies featured in this article are based on the interviews with and
essays written by two students, Todd (second author) and Brent.
Todd: Having been brought up in a household where science and religion were
both part of daily life, it was easy for me to bring the two beliefs together. This co-
existence of science and religion continued at our school where both chapel ser-
vices and science are part of the daily experience. Thus, for me, the notion of God
became all-encompassing including science and the knowledge constructed
through its procedures. At the school, I liked very much and did well in all my
subjects, including sciences—biology, chemistry and physics. Besides sciences, I
also took a keen interest in philosophy, poetry and fine art all of which were part of
my course work towards graduation. I was one of the chapel wardens, and a
member of the chapel choir. In my conversations with Michael, the senior author,
I came to know that my discourse could be labeled 'social constructivist'.While
this might be surprising, I do have a significant spiritual-religious life. These
labels, however, like so many, do not express my specific discourse at the time
of the study. (I elaborate on science and religion below.) My contribution also
presented us with a problem which we had to resolve as we wrote this article. I
often felt tempted to change or add to my earlier written and spoken statements.
Michael, on the other hand, felt that the article should be about high school
students' discourse rather than a story of my changing discourse in the process
of our inquiry. That is a different story which I would like to tell in another place.
So we decided to present my views as we reconstructed them together from the
essays, formal interviews, personal notes and informal conversations at the time I
attended Grade 12.
Brent: In his last two years at school, Brent was moderately successful student; his
grade point average was about one-half standard deviation below the mean. He was
less successful in his two sciences, chemistry and physics: barely passed one and
failed the other. Brent had selected these science courses in part because of his
parents' wish that he become a medical doctor ('My parents sort of pushed me').
In order to enter the prerequisite science programme, he had to complete the
senior-level physics and chemistry courses. He had a keen interest in theatre
arts, a subject in which he received an 'A', and was actively involved in several
drama productions at the school. During the two years at the school, he repeatedly
talked about his deep religious commitments and the conflicts he experienced as he
learned chemistry and physics. His peers also knew him as an avid debater with
respect to religious issues. Brent was also a chapel warden and a member of the
chapel choir.
Brent's parents had a very strong influence. Brent indicated that both in his
church and home he was 'scared into' the belief that he would go to hell unless he
believed in God. Physics and chemistry, on the other hand, taught him that he was
merely made of atoms, indicating that there was no afterlife. He considered science
teachers to be atheists who refuse to belief in God and who indoctrinate students,
attempting to make them believers of science. On the basis of such tensions,
paired with the observation that some of the high-achieving students were not
religious at all, he concluded that science was only for atheists. He constantly
felt caught between his parents and church on the one hand, and school science
on the other. For as long as he could remember, his parents did not help him to
overcome the conflicts he felt between scientific and religious knowledge claims,
and merely told him to believe in a supreme being.
Data and analysis
Data and interpretation

The data sources for Todd and Brent included three formal interviews (lasting
between 45 and 75 minutes) and nine reflective essays (from 4 to 7 single-spaced
type written pages) on the nature of scientific and personal knowledge, the nature
of physics and views on learning science. Over the two years we developed a close
relationship; we met up three times per week and kept personal notes and journal
entries, which became part of the data. In our conversations we talked about
epistemology, literature and poetry, cosmology, religion and philosophy. We
included in our data base articles by scientists publishing in Zygon (from the
Greek meaning 'yoke'), an interdisciplinary journal with the mission to bridge
science and religion.
We independently read and annotated all data, then met to discuss our emerging
constructions. This process was repeated, followed by the construction of a first
draft of the manuscript which became the basis for further discussions. The pre-
sent article emerged as the product of recurrent cycles of writing and collaborative
reflections. During our reading of the data, we recognized the variability of stu-
dents' discourses, which led in some cases to seemingly contradictory statements.
For example, Brent stated that knowledge is socially constructed, that is, a func-
tion of social and cultural contingencies and that it is absolute, a mirror of nature.
From a traditionally psychological and sociological perspective, this made him an
unreliable source of information (Gilbert and Mulkay 1984). However, develop-
ments in social psychology and the sociology of scientific knowledge during the
past ten years allowed us a different reading of such variability in discourse.
Construction of the analytic framework

In classicial measurement theory, views and attitudes are treated as unitary con-
structs which should lead people to answer specific interview questions (or ques-
tionnaires) in consistent ways across time within the same context, or at the same
time but across contexts (Edwards and Potter 1992, Potter and Wetherell 1987).
The notions of internal reliability and test-retest validity of questionnaires are
built on this assumption. However, recent analysis of scientific discourse provided

ample evidence for the variability of scientists' views and accounts within and
across contexts (Gilbert and Mulkay 1984). These interpretive variations in parti-
cipants' discourse arise as accounts are produced to do different things in different
contexts. Accordingly, speakers' accounts should not be taken as evidence for
individual beliefs. Rather than attempting to identify participants' elusive unitary
attitudes, we constructed a framework through the analysis of the organization of
discourse in relation to its function and context. Individuals' talk about 'their'
ideas and beliefs should therefore be taken as statements that reflect what generally
count as ideas and beliefs; this talk should not be taken as expressions of things in
individual person's minds (Edwards and Potter 1992, Pollner 1987, Potter and
Wetherell 1987). This talk about ideas, beliefs, and actions depends in many
different ways on speaking individuals' interpretations of their present context.
When speakers make claims or statements that may be considered tenuous,

they support these statements by making others which, in the context of the con-
versation, they consider to be unquestionable. These unquestionable statements
are called 'discursive resources' and the domain from which they are drawn are
called 'interpretive repertoires' (Gilbert and Mulkay 1984). Gilbert and Mulkay
introduced the empiricist repertoire to classify statements that invoke the infall-
ibility of experiments in support of claims that scientific knowledge is true and
impartial; they introduced the contingent repertoire to classify statements that
invoke the contextual influences of social, material and cultural nature in support
of claims that knowledge is not true and impartial. However, these two epistemo-
logical claims about scientific knowledge are incompatible. To mediate incompa-
tible claims, scientists used a form of argument Gilbert and Mulkay called the
truth-will-out-device (TWOD). Accordingly, scientists argued that in spite of the
contingencies, truth will eventually come out.
Because of our interest in scientific and religious discourse, we needed to
modify Mulkay and Gilbert's framework. Beginning with Todd and Brent's
data, we constructed the rational and subjective repertoires which apply to scien-
tific and religious discourse. By means of the constant comparative method
(Strauss 1987), we tested and modified our initial framework to include the dis-
cursive devices described below. As a final test, we selected all those articles from
the past four years of Zygon by physicists writing about the relationship of science
and religion (Pannenberg 1988, Peacocke 1991, Reich 1990, Sperry 1991). Based
on these analyses, we modified the framework so that it was also applicable to the
writings of these scientists and practicing Christians.
Our analytic framework, in contrast to all others with which we are familiar, is
commensurable with our pragmatist view of knowing (Rorty 1989). Equally
important, this framework does not do violence to participants by constructing
them as 'irrational', 'illogical',or 'inconsistent' on the basis of what others view as
incompatible statements.
Credibility
This study satisfies a number of criteria required to establish the credibility of
interpretive research (Guba and Lincoln 1989). Both authors lived at the school,
interacted with each other and students in a variety of contexts, and built trust
between themselves and other students; this satisfied the criterion of prolonged
1 32 W.-M. ROTH AND T. ALEXANDER
engagement.5 As part of the larger two-year study, we interacted extensively to

identify the pertinent issues which deepened our study due to persistent observa-
tion. A university science educator and a fellow science teacher with no interest in
the project served as peer debriefers who engaged with us in extended discussions
to formulate and refine our knowledge claims. Through our collaborative work in
the interpretation of the data sources and the writing of the project, as well as
through other conversations concerning art, philosophy, religion, science, litera-
ture and poetry, we ascertained our mutual positions and constructions. As a
result, we present joint constructions arising from the progressive subjectivity in
our interactions. Being participant and co-investigator allowed Todd to ascertain
the emerging constructions as a member check. As a final check, Brent read a draft
manuscript and subsequently discussed it with us. He fully agreed with our char-
acterization of his talk about science and religion, and expressed his hope that this
manuscript might lead to changes in science teaching that would help other stu-
dents like himself.
Interpretive repertoires and discursive mediation devices: a

framework for understanding scientific and religious
discourse
Past research in science education treated beliefs, attitudes and attributions as
unitary psychological constructs which can be measured by means of appropriate
instruments (questionnaires, survey, interview, etc.). Variations in participants'
discourse (or selections of items on questionnaires) were then treated as unwanted
phenomena. They also led investigators to construct their participants as irra-
tional, illogical, or as holders of compartmentalized knowledge and beliefs
(Potter and Wetherell 1987). We took a different route here. Rather than granting
the existence of unitary beliefs a priori, we avoided the construction of irrational
participants by using interpretive repertoires to account for all of the discourse,
including variations.
Interpretive Repertoires
When we asked participants to talk about controversial issues (evolution versus
creation, abortion, euthanasia) they drew on two realms for answers—science and
religion. When we asked participants to characterize the knowledge claims made
by the authorities in the two realms, they drew on the rational and subjective
repertoires. The rational repertoire was introduced to classify statements that
referred to the rationality of scientific and religious pursuits. The subjective reper-
toire was introduced to classify statements that referred to social and personal
contingencies which make scientific and religious knowledge claims less than reli-
able (figure 1). The following quotations illustrate two claims to rationality in the
scientific enterprise (Quadrant I).
Social construction: [Physics] tries to model the universe because scientists understand
that they can't really know what nature and science really is, but, so I guess the closest
they can get is to make a model of it, a representation of what it is. And I think as long
as the math part of it, as long as that is accurate and your predictions that you get from
using your mathematical model, as long as those are accurate, it doesn't—I don't think
it matters.
REALM
science religion
-incompatibility—
complementarity-
CO
HI o social social
GC construction construction
or or
absolute absolute
EC social social
LU
Q_
LU
I construction
absolute
or
construction
or
absolute
o
2"
CO IV
Figure 1. The analytic framework of interpretive repertoires. In each

Quadrant, knowledge claims are absolute or socially constructed.
'TWOD', 'incompatibility', and 'complementarity' are devices that
mediate the relationship between cells in order to avoid the conflict
apparent between two contradictory knowledge claims.
Absolute: Do scientific laws and theories exist before they are discovered by scientists?
How could one propose that Newton's laws of motion did not exist before he dis-
covered them? It is obvious that these laws exist in nature, and scientists discover
them. In retort to this question, one could ask, 'Was there no gravity on Earth before
Newton clearly defined it?' Of course there was.
Students talked about the Christian God and formal religious organizations.
Typical student statements that illustrate the rational in religious discourse
(Quadrant II) were:
Social construction: In contrast to the personal experience of God, there are also the
socially constructed organized religions and their practices. Because of their nego-
tiated character these practices vary across denominations and religions.
Absolute: God exists, because of all the miracles that he has done and everything from
the past and the history says in the Bible . . . When I hear what other people think
how the Earth was created, I say, 'well that is wrong' . . . I would think that religion
is completely by the book of God, is not artificial, because I have grown up that way.
The existence of a subjective repertoire is based on the observation that students
talked about personal and social contingencies of scientific and religious knowledge
claims that cannot be publicly accounted for in rational terms. As before, these
knowledge claims may be absolute or socially constructed. Examples of the sub-
jective dimensions in students' talk about science (Quadrant III) are:
Social construction: Well that's—the social environment will create the biases—it's the
way a scientist or any person has been brought up that will shape his thoughts, his
mind and this will influence. There was—last year we read this essay by David
Suzuki. And he cited an example of thinking that I think it was, white men are
more intelligent than black men because [they had bigger brains].
1 34 W.-M. ROTH AND T. ALEXANDER
Absolute: Science is based on fact and the knowledge will not change because of his or
her social environment. Man constantly searches for numerical answers. Therefore if
he is affected by his surroundings, he will no longer be scientific.
Students who talked about the personal dimensions of religion did so in absolute
terms. Thus, a typical statement was 'I think truth lies within ourselves, in no one
else; you can't run your life based on a book, you just have to look within yourself.
Among the students, there was nobody who felt that the personal experience in the
religious-spiritual domain was a matter of construction. However, the teacher's
view (stated in the design section) that even one's personal experience is mediated
by discursive practices of the community within which one participates is an
example of the social construction of personal dimensions of religion. 6
Discursive mediation devices

To mediate conflicting statements that arise from two statements—such as

'scientific knowledge is true' (Quadrant I) and 'society influences scientists'
knowledge claims' (Quadrant III)—some individuals use discursive mediation
devices. Previous research showed that scientists employed the truth—will—out-
device (TWOD). This discursive device allows scientists to claim the objectivity
of their knowledge claims while maintaining influences of contingent (subjective)
nature. We found that some of our students used the same device. The following
student statement is an illustration of T W O D :
Presuppositions do, I mean, they do delay scientists finding the absolute truth.
Scientists are approximating truth, I think, and then such as more recent, scientists
they are getting more and more close, and eventually we could [could know the truth]
if the world doesn't end before. An example, see Bohr's model of the atom. He had
this model that had orbitals, like the set distances; it had orbitals, and they were all
circular. And the mechanical, the quantum mechanical [model], it disproved it. But I
mean, it took a long time to disprove it.
When we included the second discourse domain, religion, we found that there was
a new potential conflict in knowledge claims (Quadrants I and II). Students argued
that both scientific and religious authorities made claims to absolute knowledge. In
some instances, these knowledge claims were contradictory. Brent, for example,
was so torn by these contradictions that it interfered with his learning. Others had
developed a devise similar to the T W O D . We called it the incompatibility device
(figure 1). Accordingly, two knowledge claims were incompatible so that an indi-
vidual drew either on one or the other realm to deal with controversial issues. For
example, Ian said that institutional science and religion were incompatible and he
kept the domains clearly separate in his accounts. When he talked about issues in
which both realms might be concerned, Ian usually decided to privilege one realm
over the other. On abortion and euthanasia, he used a religious argument to sup-
port his pro-life stand. On issues connected with genetic engineering he talked
about the potential good emerging from the scientific enterprise. In this separation
of the two realms, Ian chose the solution of many scientists.
The framework outlined so far is sufficient to classify students' scientific and
religious discourse which we set out to understand. The analysis of published
articles in Zygon revealed that our model was not entirely sufficient to account
for all of the discursive variations. Some scientists used one other device to deal
with conflicting claims of science and religion that was not used by our students.
The complementarity device (figure 1) allows an individual to look at the object of

inquiry (such as abortion or euthanasia) from two mutually exclusive viewpoints
and integrate these through a dialectical and hermeneutic process. With the inclu-
sion of this discursive mediation device, the presented analytic framework was
comprehensive and general enough to cover students' and scientists' discourse.
Our analyses showed that students—as did the scientists publishing in Zygon
and those interviewed by Gilbert and Mulkay (1984)—used interpretive reper-
toires to support their claims. When two repertoires led to conflict, discursive
mediating devices were invoked. These devices included the T W O D and incom-
patibility devices, and, in the case of some scientists, the complementarity device.
To flesh out how discourses about science and religion interact, we now present
two case studies.
Two case studies of scientific and religious discourse

The variability in the students' discourse was an immanent feature of the inter-
views with, and essays by, Todd and Brent. We observed discourse variations
which in some cases became apparent as contradictions in one and the same inter-
view. In the following sections, we will first account for Todd's discourse under
the heading of 'Science and religion at peace'. Todd presented his views about
knowing in science and religion, and finished by outlining how he integrated both
discourses. As joint authors, we situated his views in a cultural, historical, scien-
tific and spiritual context. In a similar structure, we accounted for Brent's scien-
tific and religious discourses under the heading of 'Science and religion in
conflict'. The selected excerpts in both instances are—with minor stylistic varia-
tions from the original—from our data. Todd and Brent read the exerpts to make
sure that they accurately represented what they intended to say.
Science and religion at peace
Science
Over the course of his junior and senior years, Todd's view about science and
scientific knowledge changed. Whereas he initially talked about the existence of
scientific truths, the absoluteness and infallibility of scientific knowledge and the
possibility of objectivity, his current discourse is radically different. His view of
the nature of science as an effort to construct explanatory schemes which are
negotiated in a social forum of the scientific community is not unlike that pre-
sented in recent developments in the history and philosophy of science, social
studies of science, and epistemology (Hesse 1980, Knorr-Cetina 1981, Rorty
1979, von Glasersfeld 1987). Thus, although there is a world which is experien-
tially real, it is impossible to know such a world as it really is. He argued that
constructions are useful in dealing with this world, but we can never know the
functional relationship between this knowledge and the world. As a community,
scientists construct language games (Wittgenstein 1968) which are deconstructed
when they are no longer viable in the light of sufficient new experimental evidence.
In terms of our framework, Todd described scientific knowledge as socially con-
structed (Quadrant I, figure 2a).
Todd: Science is a language game. It allows us to talk about the world in a com-
munity of knowers which shares a common language. This language allows us to
create tools—concepts and theories—to talk about this world, predict and explain
events, and thus create our knowledge of this world. We are now forced to ask
ourselves, what shape do these tools and truths take and how are they used by us?
The answer takes us to the beginning of one of my essays where I stated that it is
'with words, with sounds, all joyful, playful and obscene' on which scientific
knowledge is based. The language we create and use to describe our observations
becomes the tool itself. By changing the language we not only change the law and
principles science is stating but we also change a previously accepted truth and
effectively make a new one. Thus, it is language and the way in which we choose to
define the phenomena we observe that is at the core of our knowledge; it is through
these words that we arrive at the images and ideas that allow us to predict and
explain our observations. This holds true for everything in our lives, it is through
our language that we communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings, and it is also
through them that we are able to learn through the recreation of our perceptions
within our minds.
When the personal and subjective come to bear on the realm of science, mea-
surements, procedures and interpretations have to be considered tentative until, in
the light of new evidence, they are revised. The social and subjective also lead to
specific sociocultural rather than universal interpretations of scientific experiments
such as brought forth by science in communist USSR or Nazi Germany. But the
subjective also accounted for the shifts in 'social truths' over time. That which is
accepted today as valid knowledge may be error tomorrow, and the outrageous and
unacceptable ideas of today become the truths of tomorrow. 7 Because scientific
knowledge is socially constructed and always tentative, such variations in truth
value are characteristic features of the epistemology; they do not conflict with
Todd's discourse (Quadrant III, figure 2a). But while scientific knowledge is
socially constructed (an epistemological claim), Todd makes absolute statements
about the existence of the world (an ontological claim).
Todd: I find myself asking continually, does not the way in which we choose to
describe what is occurring in fact create our reality? Now that we have progressed
in science to a point that we are determining the relationship of things that are no
longer visible to us and are at times almost unimaginable, it seems that reality
becomes what man makes it. The way in which we describe things and think they
are becomes what is real for us, until a time that a new and better way is thought of
to replace the old; this in turn becomes our new reality. But this language has not
only such a descriptive quality to be used in understanding the phenomenal world,
but can also be used reflexively, to think about our thinking, language, and knowl-
edge. It lets us conceive of our knowledge as being constructed, and as having a
precarious relationship with that which it describes, including language
itself . . . Although I believe that the world is constructed, a construction
mediated by language, figural models, and perceptions, I do not consider myself
a solipsist. I believe that there is a world in which we are thrown, a world which we
sense as experientially real, about which we have no doubt.
(a)
REALM
Todd science religion
1 II
CO CO
Ui c
o
rati
cc social social
g construction construction
E
HI CD
social absolute
construction
Q.
111 to
DC CD
S"
3
III IV
(b)
REALM
Brent
science religion
CO cd ««CONFLICT»»
111 o
DC 1
O absolute absolute
DC CD
social absolute
HI construction
a.
iii
DC
IV
Figure 2. The interpretive repertoires of two students, Todd and Brent.

Brent does not have a device to mediate the conflicting claims in
Quadrants I and II. TWOD permits him to reconcile conflicting
claims arising from the repertoires in Quadrant I and III.
Religion
For Todd, knowledge claims shared within organized churches are like those of
other institutions; they are negotiated within communities. That is, these knowl-
edge claims bear the same marks as those in other public arenas such as science,
art, or music (Quadrant II, figure 2a).
Todd: In contrast to the personal experience of God, there are also the socially
constructed organized religions and their practices. Because of their negotiated
character these practices vary across denominations and religions.
The subjective repertoire of religious knowledge allowed Todd to take

account of the personal knowledge of God. He left no doubt that personal
knowledge of God (an epistemological claim) has absolute status ('absolute' in
Quadrant IV, figure 2a). With his religious discourse, Todd took a position that
Christian theology began to develop during the Age of Englightenment, and
then in England particularly during the second half of the last century.
According to this position, the Bible should not be read literally, but as an
allegory or account of the universe from the perspective of a people at the time
of the writing of Genesis, about 3000 years ago (Kenkel 1985, Pannenberg
1988). Accordingly, creation and evolution are not incompatible, but are differ-
ent ordering stories that make sense in their respective contexts. In fact, the
evolutionary changes in the animate world can be viewed as a continuous crea-
tion of a world in which God is immanent (Peacocke 1991:462). But in this
view, God is not some kind of spiritual gas permeating the universe like the
nineteenth century ether, but 'all-that-is in its actual processes is God, manifest
in his mode as continuous creator . . we could say that the world is in God,
that there is nothing in the world not in God'. Such an understanding of God
and His relationship to the world Peacocke calls 'panewtheism' which views
God as including and penetrating the whole universe so that every part exists
in Him, but that God transcends this world, is more than, and not exhausted
by, the universe. As for evolution, it is a process of emergence in which God's
work can be seen at work, continuously creating in and through the material
world.
Todd: Religion and God are part of a spiritual realm of human beings. Our experi-
ence with God is always a personal one. This experience has an ontology similar to
the reality of material objects and events phenomena: it is experientially real. But
in addition, this personal experience is also the only source of truth and permits me
to make truly ethical and moral decisions. The experience of God is a spiritual one
which includes all the wonders of human existence; it includes all those things like
love, beauty, truth and goodness which cannot be explained by science, and may
have no place in science. I mean, just look at intangible things, like love and
beauty. I think that equates to God for me. You do not understand why, but
you know that these things exist. You know certain things are beautiful, and you
know you love certain things, but you cannot explain why, you just do. It's like
beauty: if you are sitting at night down by the lake, having a beer or a smoke or
whatever. All of a sudden the sun goes down, and the colors appear in the sky and
on the horizon. It is beautiful, that is IT, that is beauty, you cannot say why, you
can't define it. In my view, God is not a material or physical being, and cannot be
perceived or described in any way. Whenever I think of God I get a picture of
nothing, but try to think of nothing, and that's God, and that's: well think of
nothing that's as close as you can get to everything, and that gives you God. If
you are infinite then there is no such thing as change, but is all-encompassing, so
we can't apply change to infinite things, I mean that's like saying is God good-
looking, or is God plain, or, I don't know, tall, we can't apply the term to infinite
things. The essence is that things came from God, and they are part of God, God
doesn't have two hands, doesn't have a face, doesn't have a mind, God just is.
Integration of science and religion

Because the notion of social construction allows multiple viewpoints of the same
'object', Todd did not experience conflict bringing the two realms together in the
process of rational discourse. He could draw on all repertoires without experien-
cing conflict for answers to difficult decisions; therefore, Todd did not need a
mediating device such as TWOD, incompatibility, or complementarity (see figure
2a). The religious discourse provided Todd with an important spiritual resource
for making difficult decisions in this world. Like others (Postman 1992), Todd
indicated that a scientific or technological rationality cannot provide the necessary
ethical dimension for making informed choices about dealing with issues such as
abortion, euthanasia, AIDS, or genetic engineering. Scientific and technological
rationality always are subservient to market or political pressures, while the reli-
gion-informed, personal ethic provides 'true' standards. With a number of theo-
logians, particularly those in the tradition of his own Anglican Church, Todd
believes that any ethic has to be contingent on the particulars of each situation.
Thus, rather than seeking an absolute, immutable and dogmatic ethic, he favored a
situational ethic (Fletcher 1966). This ethic is not informed by either scientific or
religious dogma but by the specific relationships of the individual case in its socio-
cultural, economic, scientific and spiritual context.
Todd: I believe that my non-literal understanding of the Biblical creation story

interfaces with my conception of an immaterial God that revealed itself to Moses
as an entity without image. God's presence is immanent in the universe as creation,
and evolution is the process by which the world is continually transformed.
Although in this view, God does not actively intervene in the physical world,
God and the associated spirituality are resources for me to deal with ethical pro-
blems. As a scientist or doctor (see note 2), I will draw on these resources within
myself where I relate to God. I find that when we have problems, we draw on our
religion not on science. Science is there just for man to use, but there is not the
energy in it: like when we have problems and difficulties we draw on our religious
and spiritual sides, and when we have problem we look at our religious side. We are
not looking for a textbook, we do not read a book about it: we look into ourselves.
Science in and of itself does not have an ethic, it is value neutral ready for man
to use for the betterment of man. To overcome this lacunae of value neutrality in
decisions involving man and the world, we have to use our personal, religious and/
or spiritual resources for dealing with the ethical and moral dimensions of decision
making. Because of its personal nature, this spirituality leads to an ethic which is
very case-based and differs from decision maker to decision maker. Euthanasia and
abortion need to be case related, that is the only way that decisions would be made
for one person on a case. As a doctor, I will know before an operation. I can see
both sides, all the arguments, and I ride the fence pretty much to all of them; if I
disagree with an abortion then I would not perform it; if I disagreed with eutha-
nasia then I would not perform it. I would make a decision case by case because
these are not black and white issues. Just like with genetic engineering, it is not a
black and white subject. Here too, every decision would be very situational. I
mean, it is totally situational, both are prime examples, with huge gray areas and I
think for me I would be very internally very case related.
Science and religion in conflict
Science
Brent described science as a human effort that yields absolute truths (Quadrant I,
figure 2b). He used the subjective repertoire in the realm of science to account for
the errors due to the emotional engagement and personal investments of the scien-
tists in the products of their labor (Quadrant I I I , figure 2b). Here, Brent encoun-
tered a problem; he had to account for the difference between the absolute truths
generated by scientists and the erroneous knowledge they produce because of their
personal engagement. In this case, Brent made use of the T W O D which assures
that the ill-constructed aspects of scientific knowledge will be weeded out. He

suggested that erroneously accepted scientific work will be re-evaluated in the
future. The facts will decide and weed out wrong explanations so that the truth
will come out. This has the effect that over time, scientific knowledge more and
more approximates truth.
Brent: The statement 'the social environment of a scientist will influence the con-
tent of the knowledge he or she proposes' is debatable but I would have to agree
because of the fact that wherever a scientist will live, he or she will alter their
observations and knowledge . . .
We talked about Suzuki's essay on objectivity in science. People seemed to
assume that there is no truth. But I disagree. Science does approximate truth. It
only adds on to more questions which needed to be answered. As days have passed
from Socrates to Newton thoughts which have been expressed in public, slowly
make us realize that this is what the world is made of. More and more people begin
to add on, or reliably explain a dilemma precisely as the days flow by. Science is
what people say how the world is built. To a degree, science may lead a path
towards truth, but are we accurate enough to say that science is a true fact? We
can say that science provides us with true facts, explanations to what the truth
really is; and science is but one way to resolve a question which needs to be
answered. Yes, in fact I am saying that science is reality and no other belief
more and more approximates truth.
Religion
Brent said that religious knowledge claims are rationally accountable and based on
the Bible and the existence of God. Knowledge claims shared by the members of
churches therefore have an absolute status (Quadrant II, figure 2b). These claims
are supported by the Bible and members' knowledge of God's existence.
Brent: We know of God because he reveals himself in a very understandable way.
We know that God exists, because of all the miracles that He has done in the
past. History and the Bible say that He is the person that made the Red Sea go
apart, He is the one who multipled the bread and the wine. This is why we
believe that there is God. This is the reason why Christianity is probably one of
the most popular religions there ever was. There are a lot of people, even
Muslims and others believing in God. All in all, God in any religion has become
the main focus and that's why people assume that there is a God, because more
people believe it.
Religion, I find it very hard to understand how I believe in God; I can't
touch Him, I can't see him. But then the Bible says, 'this woman was blind, and
she touched his clothes and she was able to see again. She touched him, and she
was able to see again'. I want something like that, I want something to believe in.
God put Adam and Eve on earth, so that is one reason that there is logic behind
the existence of [physical] forces. There are forces and similar things, created by
God, that keep Adam and Eve down there, gravity and whatever, they stay,
that's all.
In accordance with his need for concrete experience, Brent took most of the
Biblical accounts as literal descriptions. In this, he resembled many fundamentalist
Christians who engage in the legal debate of science versus religion although his
own Presbyterian church does not promulgate such discourse. Besides the literal
truth of the Bible, Brent's discourse shared two other features with that of those
fundamentalist Christians who argued against science in court: the irreconcilable
differences between religion and science, and the superiority of biblical wisdom
over scientific knowledge (Gieryn et al. 1985). First, religion stands against science
as in an engagement of two armies trying to conquer each other, or like two orators
vying for the audience's approval. Any positive acknowledgement of the viability
of a scientific account for the present state of the universe could only come at the
expense of biblical authority, a victory for science and ultimately the devil. He
often used military metaphors to describe his discussions on science and religions
('I put up a big fight', 'I shot down his argument') or qualified statements as more
or less persuasive ('I put up a pretty good debate', 'his argument would be a lot
more diverse than mine', 'the listener would find it more convincing'). Second,
faith in the Bible is more valuable than scientific knowledge because only religion
is able to provide man with purpose and ethico-moral standards. However, Brent's
own accounts were little informed by the ongoing discussion of creation science
versus evolution (such as his own account about the age of the earth) so that he did
not and could not make use of fundamentalists' discursive strategies (O'Connor
and Ivers 1988, Overton 1983). He recognized this lack of persuasiveness, and for
that reason always found himself in the position of the underdog in discussions
with teachers or groups of peers. Comparing Brent's and Todd's talk about God's
relationship with creation, we notice that Brent stressed the externality of the
creative acts—He is creating something external to Himself—while Todd held a
reformed view (Peacocke 1991), where God is immanent in and of the creation.
Brent's discourse about his personal religious experience transpired certainty.
His knowledge claims equal the absolute status of the church's public knowledge
claims (Quadrant IV, figure 2b).
Brent: I need to see or touch in order to believe, and this causes me some pain. For
I have asked God for signs or something like that. Moses and people like that they
got their sign. Whereas I am just a little boy—I feel like I am a little boy now—who
does not have a God because he didn't give me the sign. I believe in God—I think
I believe in God—and that there is an afterlife for me. There is actually something
there for me, so that I wouldn't got to hell and I will be up there with the angels, or
something like that . . . To be 100% sure that there is God or something from
physics, to be a 100% sure that there is something, I need to touch it. If it is

something like that, I want to see it, I want to touch it.
Science and religion

The following excerpts from Brent's interviews and essays illustrate the conflicts
arising from the absolute truth claims of science and religion as rational enter-
prises.
Brent: From my perspective there are no similarities between science and religion
at all. Science says that something else did it, and my religion says that God did it
all. Religion and science, they do not connect. People might say that they do, but
they don't connect at all. It is really like an apple and an orange, or an apple and a
coconut whatever you want to take; science and religion don't just connect in a way
that they can work with each other. There is nothing in science that says anything
about God, there is nothing in science at all; and there is nothing in religion that
says anything about science. So how can they associate if they don't mention
anything at all? For myself, that is logical enough. There is nothing at all.
Chemistry and physics, however, they do connect, because chemistry needs phy-
sics and physics needs chemistry in some ways; religion never says anything about
science and science never says anything about religion, that is the way I think.
Physics offends my beliefs, probably because of something that I have grown
up with all my life. Science completely goes against what God has created, the so-
called power person who created everything; and people who are in the sciences are
saying that ' y ° u know, it wasn't him at all'. To me that is a direct insult. In a way, I
could take that very lightly, but I just can't accept the fact that science and religion
go together. In science, I feel like I am drawn away from religion and that really
worries me a lot, because I feel I am being taken away from what I have been a part
of, which is religion. If I go towards religion, I feel like I am not giving science a
chance at all, and therefore I feel like I am not giving science a chance and I can't
see myself doing that, because I am a person of morals.
I have to refute your claim that the universe was created four billion years ago.
I think that the earth has been created 50,000 years ago, by my belief that is
probably the only firm foundation that I have, I think it is 50,000 and not five
millon. I don't see what possible proof scientists could have that the earth is like 50
billion, how they can say it takes 50 billion years for fossils. When I hear you and
other people talk about how the Earth was created, by referring to the theories of
Big Bang and evolution, I say, well that is wrong. I believe that you are wrong and
I am right—I am right because God has taught me so; and you are wrong because
God did not bring you up that way, you are misinterpreting what the world
actually is.
Brent's scientific and religious discourses both included accounts of concrete
experiences. Lacking concreteness easily led Brent to doubts and disbelief. While
he accepted scientists' (and technologist') authority, he found himself at a loss
when it came to abstract concepts or theories. He associated many of his problems
in learning science with the irreconcilable conflicts between the religious dis-
course—which he learned at home from his parents and in church—and the scien-
tific discourse to which he was introduced at school.
Conclusions
This study allowed us to explore the complexities in students' scientific and reli-
gious discourse. Our analysis in terms of interpretive repertoires accounted for
students' talk in different contexts. The strength of our analytic scheme of inter-
pretive repertoires lies in the fact that it accounts for the conflicts in discourse
without constructing individuals as 'irrational', and it accounts for the discursive
strategies used to resolve these conflicts.
Our analysis suggests that science teachers may have to consider helping stu-
dents to develop discursive mediation devices; these would allow students to deal
with conflicting situations. Cobern (1993:949) pointed out that science classroom
learning environments 'can be improved, especially with regard to students who
typically do not do well or who do not like science, if teachers are aware of stu-
dents' world views' (p. 949). The questions that remain to be addressed are related
to whether science teachers recognize the necessity of incorporating teaching stra-

tegies that would help students deal with their conflicting discourses. The teacher
in this study always found time to discuss questions related to the epistemology of
science. These discussions can easily be broadened to touch on the issues presented
here. Other science teachers frequently say that they do not have enough time to
cover the required content. In such cases, an alternate solution would be for
schools to offer a special course that allows students to engage in a philosophy—
of—wisdom inquiry in which the discourses of music, literature, drama, politics,
science, religion and philosophy are treated at the same level (Maxwell 1992); that
is, none of the discourses should dominate at the expense of the others. Such a
course would allow students to discuss some of the key problems we face, but
which are traditionally addressed only from a scientific-technological perspective
without yielding viable solutions. Among these problems are all those which
potentially threaten the survival of mankind on our planet.
At this point, we deem it important to assert that the most serious danger for
both science and religion comes from the corruption of both scientific and religious
habits of thought. Science and religion, particularly those in the Jewish, Catholic
and many classical Protestant traditions, share the traits that they 'make objective
demands upon self, require discipline and method, and rigorously attack self-
deception' (Novak 1983:34). These virtues are all but abandoned by a new rising
culture which shows a blatant naivete with respect to the purpose and method of
science and indulges in the occult, magic, astrology and other similar pursuits as a
substitute for science and religion. We notice that decline in traditional religion has
not resulted in a decline of superstition, totemism, and magic, but has given rise to
new forms of pursuing them. By providing students avenues and opportunities to
integrate traditional scientific and religious discourses, we may yet turn the tide to
help both survive.
It needs to be emphasized that we are not advocating that every student, or
every scientist, should become a Christian, or follow some other credo. We illu-
strated that there are ways in which science and religion can be accommodated by
one and the same person without leading to problematic and incoherent construc-
tions of Self. Although we are not claiming that science should be replaced by
religion and ethics, there is a definite place for a high school course in which
science, religion, philosophy, arts and other subjects are treated as parallel forms
of inquiry towards the development of a 'good world'. Such a course would also
allow students to experience science as but one form of inquiry, with a limited
realm of applicability. Such a course needs to be truly interdisciplinary, in which
no single discourse is privileged, such as in some 'science in society' courses, where
scientific discourses dominate at the expense of the social and humanistic dis-
courses.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Brent, the student who participated in the study and who
continued to encourage us in our work as we talked to him about our draft ver-
sions. He expressed his sincere hope that this study might help those who experi-
ence similar belief conflicts. We thank Bill Cobern for repeated feedback and
encouragement; Anita Roychoudhury and Michael Bowen for their help in reflect-
ing on the study in all its phases; and Ken Tobin, David Gruender and Lanny
Kanevski for comments on earlier drafts.
Address correspondence to Wolff-Michael Roth, Faculty of Education, Simon
Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6. E. mail address via Internet:
[email protected].
Notes
1. Because of the problems associated with mapping talk and text onto underlying cognitive
representations (Edwards and Potter 1992), this article takes as its central tenet the
primacy of language as a reality-constituting practice. Rather than focusing on under-
lying 'beliefs' and 'conceptions', we studied students' discourse. This aspect of our
approach is explained in greater detail in the section on interpretive repertoires.
2. Todd, the co-author of this article, is identified by his real name throughout the manu-
script. He currently studies medicine at the University of Western Ontario. This article
was drafted while he was still a high school student. Brent and Ian are the pseudonyms
for two other students.
3. It was also implicit in the conceptualization and design of the study, was part of the
ecology of the interview situations, and unavoidably determined the reading of the data
sources.
4. Incidentally, Feyerabend (1991) suggested that scientific discourse shares some essential
features with orthodox discourse in some Christian denominations.
5. We both lived in the same residence. One of us was head boy, a senior student repre-
sentative, the other served in an advisory and supervisory position. Our positions
entailed daily contacts which often evolved into prolonged discussions on topics that
ranged from the strictly academic to the personal, aesthetic and ethico-moral.
6. For an interesting account of the discursive construction of Self see Edwards and Potter
(1992).
7. As a graduate student, Louis de Broglie made the proposal to treat matter as wave. This
proposal is said to have been treated as outrageous by professors and graduate students at
de Broglie's institution until Einstein, during a visit to de Broglie's institution, recog-
nized it as a major advance in theoretical physics.
8. Todd maintained that evolution and creation, for example, are different but socially
constructed ordering stories. We use the complementarity principle when speakers
invoke different descriptons to explain a phenomenon, all of which may they regard
true depending on the context.
9. The emphasis is Brent's.
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The interaction of students' scientific and religious

Wolff-Michael Roth, Simon Fraser University and

0950-0693/97 $12.00 © 1997 Taylor & Francis Ltd

Participants and setting

Science and religion at school

Teacher and his beliefs

a god as a discursive resource, I consider myself (and am considered by others) as

Science and religion: psychosocial setting

Data and analysis

Data and interpretation

Construction of the analytic framework

built on this assumption. However, recent analysis of scientific discourse provided

When speakers make claims or statements that may be considered tenuous,

engagement.5 As part of the larger two-year study, we interacted extensively to

dents like himself.

Interpretive repertoires and discursive mediation devices: a

Figure 1. The analytic framework of interpretive repertoires. In each

Discursive mediation devices

To mediate conflicting statements that arise from two statements—such as

The complementarity device (figure 1) allows an individual to look at the object of

Two case studies of scientific and religious discourse

Science and religion at peace

Figure 2. The interpretive repertoires of two students, Todd and Brent.

The subjective repertoire of religious knowledge allowed Todd to take

Integration of science and religion

Todd: I believe that my non-literal understanding of the Biblical creation story

Science and religion in conflict

that the ill-constructed aspects of scientific knowledge will be weeded out. He

physics, to be a 100% sure that there is something, I need to touch it. If it is

Science and religion

to whether science teachers recognize the necessity of incorporating teaching stra-

GILBERT, G. N. and MULKAY, M. (1984) Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of

RORTY, R. (1989) Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Problems of Representation in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics (Hillsdale:

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