ABSTRACT
There are three important social and educational considerations that justify dealing with Joseph Priestley in school science programmes:
First, schools are asked to address pressing environmental problems and especially the ‘goodness of air’ (to use Priestley’s phrase) and, thus, they need to teach about the process of photosynthesis, something on which Priestley shed so much early understanding.
Second, NOS goals are included in numerous international curricula, and Priestley’s writings and practice well illustrate many of the essential features of NOS.
Third, there is a widespread concern in education and in culture with reappraising and re-examining the tenets of the European Enlightenment tradition, and in particular its universalist, naturalist and secular commitments. Michael Peters, quoted earlier, well captures this widespread concern (Peters 1995, pp. 327–328). Priestley’s life and achievements provide a good case for evaluating what is dead and what is living from the original Enlightenment claims and achievements.
