Introduction to special issue: Epistemic tools in science education

We argue that unless teachers provide students with openings to take up some form of epistemic agency through the use of tools, and if students do not perceive and act on such openings, then the rhetoric of the Framework and Next Generation Science Standards—focused on participation in practices—is empty and aims to perpetuate the status quo of current and problematic science teaching and learning. Drawing on our own work and that of others, including the authors in this special issue of Science Education , we assert that epistemic tools and their principled use in classrooms have an important role in disrupting the status quo.