Conceitos de espécie em livros didáticos de Biologia

Abstract

In the evolutionary context, the species concept is a central theme, causing long academic discussions both in the Biology and Philosophy fields. For Biology, the species concept makes it possible to recover and understand of organisms, in addition to understanding that the perception that a unique understanding of biodiversity is not feasible. For Biology teaching, the species concept allows thinking about the science dynamics and the complexity of biological diversity. Therefore, the species concept for the Biology teaching is a relevant theme, so we conducted this research in order to analyze the species of concept(s) in textbooks, and their respective teacher’s manual of Biology approved in the National Textbook Program (PNLD) of 2018. Of a qualitative nature and based on the Content Analysis, we studied the textbooks for the 2nd and 3rd years of High School in the ten approved collections by PNLD/2018 of Biology, selecting the chapters that approached the contents of classification of living beings, Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology, chapters which could address the theme of species concepts. We identified 11 (eleven) species concepts in total. The biological species concept was found in the ten collections and the phylogenetic species concept in five collections. Concepts such as the Ecological, Evolutionary, and Typological appeared in two collections, and the Cohesion, Phenetic, Genetic, Morphological, Recognition, and Nominalist Species concepts in only one collection. Activities that approached the theme of the species concept were also found, presenting the focus on the biological species concept. The speciation activities were closely linked to the species concept. In the teacher’s manual, subsidies were identified for working on the content of the species concept in three collections, and proposals for activities in four collections. We concluded that the presentation of a single species concept occurs mainly in textbooks for the 2nd year, and the approach of more than one species concept is reserved for the book for the 3rd year. In the approach of the biological species concept, it is stated that it is a didactic concept and that it allows developing the content of the classification and origin of living beings. For the Phylogenetic concept, approached in half of the collections, the influence of the Phylogenetic Systematics is related. The presentation of multiple species concepts is defined as an alternative to the limitations of the biological species concept, but not only to this. The approach of other species concepts allows the student to perceive the dynamics of the construction of scientific knowledge, recognizing it as a human construction, its achievements, and limitations, in addition to understanding that to recover and learn about biodiversity, multiple tools are needed, in this case, multiple species concepts.