A study of the association of attitudes to the philosophy of science with classroom contexts, academic qualification and professional training, amongst A level biology teachers in Harare, Zimbabwe

The responses from 33 A level biology teachers to a questionnaire were analysed to test for association between attitude to the philosophy of science and academic qualification professional training. The teachers in Harare, Zimbabwe, also self-reported on their school contexts. From the school context data the teachers were clustered to give two different clusters - richer and poorer schools. Teachers in the poorer school context cluster showed statistically significant differences from those in the richer school context cluster in their attitudes to the philosophy of science. Teachers in the richer schools had more relativist and deductivist attitudes while teachers in the poorer context clusters were more positivist and inductivist. Richer schools are able to employ teachers who are academically and professionally better qualified. This evidence suggests the differential distribution of facilities and resources across school contexts reinforces the differential distribution of attitudes to the philosophy of science.