Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2018, 6, 216-225 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2018.68017 Aug. 24, 2018 216 Open Journal of Social Sciences Childhood and Scientific Literacy: Contributions of History and Epistemology Aldo Sena de Oliveira 1,2 , Vanessa Lima Bertolazi Simon 2 , Alexandre Simon 2 1 Department of Exact Sciences and Education, Blumenau Center, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Blumenau, Brazil 2 University of Blumenau, Blumenau, Brazil Abstract In this article we present some narratives about childhood from the perspec- tive of history and epistemology. The theme will be interwoven with the dis- courses that permeate multiple debates that are present in the context of con- temporary education, especially from the point of view of scientific literacy. The intention is not to exhaust the theme, given its complexity, but to present some guiding axes from the dialogue where we allow ourselves to understand childhood beyond its ontological meaning and allow us to understand the child as a socio-historical and cultural subject. Keywords Childhood, Scientific Literacy, Epistemology 1. Introduction The understanding of childhood from elements that deal with its historical and social context has reached important dialogues in the most diverse social sectors, being often embedded in political, economic and educational discourses [1]. Childhood has been conceived as a typical discovery of modernity, whose gene- sis is strongly related to the development of schooling, the influence of Chris- tianity and new forms of family life [2]. The studies of [2] reaffirm the concep- tion of childhood as something that is being built, created from new ways of speaking and feeling of adults [3] to the detriment of a notion of childhood as a natural stage of human development. The invented childhood image is constituted from cultural practices, typical of a historical context. Conceiving the child as a miniature adult was a common practice until the seventeenth century, when it was considered that there were no How to cite this paper: de Oliveira, A.S., Simon, V.L.B. and Simon, A. (2018) Child- hood and Scientific Literacy: Contributions of History and Epistemology. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 6, 216-225. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2018.68017 Received: July 22, 2108 Accepted: August 21, 2018 Published: August 24, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access