Diverse authors are increasingly recognizing the import of renewing current scholastic conceptions pertaining to the nature of science and the associated pedagogical practices. Many are inspired by work undertaken in the sociology of science. In this paper, we briefly describe : 1) how some educational researchers have interpreted various social aspects of science ; 2) the relevance of such proposals in light of pre-service teachers’ conceptions of science ; and 3) how these illustrations figure in the case of a student teacher at the elementary level.