Based on Foucault's concept of the dispositive, the paper attempts to show how societies and schools have been functioning for some time now by regulating three dispositives: juridical, disciplinary, and security. While the crises of the 1970s shifted the combination of dispositives in education in the West towards security, this shift in the…

Reviews several arguments deployed in favor of promoting the public understanding of science. Examines assumptions embodied in these arguments. An introductory discussion of scientific literacy is given and suggested as being a more appropriate goal because it provides more criteria for assessing the nature and understanding of science. (RT)