A instituição da “Física de Partículas Elementares” como disciplina científica e sua relação com a formação de professores

The debate regarding the consolidation of a new area as a scientific discipline is not a well explored issue in the literature, albeit its relevance to teacher training. On the contrary to what one might think, scientific disciplines are not a spontaneous manner of how phenomena appear in nature. They are product of human creation, and each one has its own history. In order to reinforce this thesis, we shall introduce the case of the constitution of Elementary Particle Physics as a scientific discipline. By this episode, we also intend to show how epistemological issues can be raised during the process of teacher training in order for them to gain a clearer picture of the processes through which science develops itself.