Interdisciplinarity in science education in France: analysis of approaches and their application to the vibrating string case study

This thesis explores the relations among STEM-disciplines in France, with a special focus on the interaction between mathematics and physics. It presents the French high school system that recently underwent a governmental reform called BAC 2021. The work examines different approaches to interdisciplinarity in a context of science education, illustrating in particular the Julie Thompson Klein’s taxonomy. Six French researchers working with interdisciplinary were interviewed. The analysis with the Klein’s theoretical lenses of the definitions of interdisciplinarity collected in the interviews points out some practical criteria to compare and distinguish among methodological, theoretical, instrumental and critical interdisciplinarity. The thesis claims that the collaboration of people having different backgrounds is enriching because experts of various domains know different epistemologies. Some critical opinion towards the new reform BAC 2021 are expressed, especially about interdisciplinarity. Despite the introduction of a new subject of science education, it has emerged the fact that in the French education system the STEM topics seem still not to be present enough. Introducing the STEM-related problems in the teaching should be supported by an adequate university teaching research. In the end, a historical case study of the vibrating string controversy is presented. Starting with a modern treatment of the problem, the thesis problematizes the fact that often it is presented as a simple exercise, whilst, it represented a very emblematic case of interdisciplinarity. Through the historical contextualisation with the biographies of the protagonists and the analysis of the debate it highlights the analysis of the interdisciplinarity between mathematics and physics in a theme proposed in the second-grade syllabus of the school subject “science education”. The last part of the chapter develops the narrative of the debate and suggests some didactic implementations.