In the present article some elements of Gaston Bachelard's historical epistemology are presented in order to discuss some aspects regarding chemistry teaching and chemistry teacher education. Based on some aspects related to the production process in chemical science, we aim to show how specific epistemological conceptions such as naive realism, substantialism, and classical rationalism were historically overcome; however, they are still present in textbooks and chemistry manuals. With this in mind, this article presents some concepts of bachelardian epistemology, such as epistemological polarity, epistemological surveillance and epistemological profiles and inserts them into questions which have been recently discussed for teaching and teacher education, emphasizing Mortimer's conceptual teaching profile and its usage as a didactic resource in science teaching.
Chemistry teaching; Science's teacher education; Epistemological conceptions
