"Have Space Suit – Will Travel" de Robert Heinlein : a novel to question students' relationship with authority?

Abstract

In the modern society, largely informed by science and technology, the societal challenges facing the younger generations are immense. Yet, the latest international tests highlight major shortcomings in the scientific literacy of young French pupils, despite a large consensus over the necessity for them to acquire scientific skills and to establish healthy relationship with science, its applications and its direct societal implications. One key challenge of this training is to help the students acquire a relationship to authority that is very specific to scientific culture, namely the refusal of the argument from authority as the sole argument, which stands at the very foundation of modern science. However, science teachers are faced with a difficulty: there's something of a paradox in instructing students to be wary of authoritative discourse through an authoritative argument. Science fiction, and more specifically hard science fiction, could provide a way around this difficulty. By way of example, we use extracts from a novel by Robert Heinlein, Have Spacesuit – Will Travel, to derive pedagogical uses likely to help young readers develop a healthy relationship with authority and knowledge, and to make them aware of different types of argument.