Percepções dos Discentes de um Curso de Licenciatura em Química sobre o papel do Ensino de Química na Era da Pós-verdade, Fake News e Movimentos Negacionistas.

Abstract

Ahead of so many eventualities arising from social, political and cultural problems, and in particular the Covid-19 disease, several anti-scientific movements arise in denial of Science, fake news, pseudoscientific, germinating a decline due to science. This article aims to investigate the perceptions of Chemistry graduates at the UFNT/Araguaína campus, regarding the importance of teaching Chemistry in combating these anti-scientific movements. The methodology established here is of a qualitative nature, and of the case study type, where the constitution of the data occurred with the elaboration and application of an online questionnaire linked to the Google Forms platform, containing open, closed and mixed or multiple choice questions. For data analysis, Content Analysis was used, highlighting the categorization. As main results, we point out the perception of undergraduates in an advantageous and positive way, to a greater knowledge of what is post-truth, fake news and scientific denialism; they have the habit of always or almost always checking information; use scientific, safe and reliable sources to identify fake news; in front of common sense they articulate means for the formulation of their critical sense; they show several fake news that they testified regarding the Chemistry area; and how these fake news harm the teaching of Chemistry, such as discrediting Science, a wrong perception of Chemistry, harming the student's teaching-learning about this scientific field. They also present solutions and strategies to face such problems within the teaching of Chemistry, highlighting in their responses the promotion of Scientific Literacy (SC) and various methodological approaches. It is concluded that the research fulfills the proposed objectives, showing that future graduates understand the promotion of scientific knowledge through CA and a diversity of methodologies within the teaching of Chemistry, in the fight against such movements that interfere in the formation of critical thinking in front of society.