The social bases of disciplinary knowledge and practice in productive disciplinary engagement

In this commentary regarding the four articles in this special issue, I focus on three inter-related issues for Productive Disciplinary Engagement (PDE). First, I consider the disciplinary aspects of engagement as related to teaching and learning science. Second, across the four studies, I note the importance of the discursive work needed to frame the disciplinary inquiry in an educational community through the establishment of norms and practices for interaction. Third, conclude by considering the implications for PDE of social nature of scientific knowledge.