Terraplanismo e ensino de física: uma análise de publicações em mídias sociais

Abstract

The flat earth movement is alive and present in social media. The high consumption of information dissonant with the current scientific understanding is worrisome, before a spectrum of greater dependence on the results and reflections of science. In this scenario, physics education is one of the protagonists, since one of its functions is to provoke reflection on the shape of the earth and on the successive argumentative conceptions that point to its non-flat form. In this sense, with the help of Laurence Bardin’s content analysis procedures, aspects of Paulo Freire’s pedagogy, Karl Popper’s and Paul Feyerabend’s epistemological reflections, publications that defend the flat earth movement on Facebook social media were analyzed from 09/16/21 to 10/16/21 in order to determine which are the most recurrent “wrongly” interpreted physics concepts and to reflect on the reasons for this recurrence. It was noticed that the main divergent interpretation of current scientific knowledge occurs in the topics of “Mechanics” and “Astronomy”, especially in the concepts of gravity and solar astronomy. The causes of this recurrence were interpreted based on reflections about how these concepts are being taught, with emphasis on the epistemological dimension involved in this teaching. Moreover, in order to contribute to the demystification of some flat-earthers arguments from the perspective of physical science concepts, some of the publications found were qualitatively analyzed. Finally, it was argued in favor of a frank teaching of physics that allows, dialogically, the understanding of science as human, lacking universal truths and non-cumulative.