Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection logoLink to Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
. 2004 Apr 1;4(2):149–168. doi: 10.1080/14926150409556603

Educating for Citizenship: Reappraising the Role of Science Education

Wolff-Michael Roth 11,✉, Jacques Désautels 21
PMCID: PMC7149063  PMID: 38624285

Abstract

New discoveries and technological inventions render the world increasingly complex. Fostering students’ scientific and technological literacy has, therefore, become a primary goal for many science educators. Yet the concept of scientific literacy is itself not at all clear. In this article, we contest the dominant approach, which defines scientific literacy in terms of what scientists produce or do. We argue that a more viable approach begins by framing a more general project of (democratic) citizenship and asks what kind of scientific literacy can contribute to this project. The different parts of our argument are illustrated with data from a three-year ethnographic study of science in one community. These data feature adult residents who were dealing with the contested issue of whether or not to extend the existing water main in order to supply with water a part of the community that, at the time, had to rely on seasonally contaminated wells. Irrespective of their science background, these citizens engaged scientists. We argue that educating for citizenship presupposes participation in democratic processes, a stance that has considerable implications for science education.

References

  1. Beck, U. (1992). Risk society. London: Sage. [Google Scholar]
  2. Berlan, J-R, & Lewontin, R. (1998). La Menace du complexe génético-industriel: racket sur le vivant. Le Monde diplomatique, 537, 1, 22–23. [Google Scholar]
  3. Bimber, B., & Guston, D.H. (1995). Politics by the same means: Government and science in the US. In S. Jasanoff, G. Markle, J. Petersen, & T. Pinch (Eds.), Handbook of science and technology studies (pp. 554–571). Beverly Hills: Sage. [Google Scholar]
  4. Bowerbank, S. (1997). Telling stories about places. Alternatives, 23(1), 28–33. [Google Scholar]
  5. Bourdieu, P. (1994). Raisons pratiques: Sur la théorie de l’action. Paris: Editions du Seuil. [Google Scholar]
  6. Brookhart, Costa, V. (1993). School science as a rite of passage: A new frame for familiar problems. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30, 649–668. [Google Scholar]
  7. Brown, J.S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. [Google Scholar]
  8. Brown, N., & Michael, M. (2001). Switching between science and culture in transpecies transplantation. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 26, 3–22. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Callon, M. (1999). Ni intellectuel engagé, ni intellectuel dégagé: la double stratégie de l’attachement et du détachement. Sociologie du travail, 41(1), 65–78. [Google Scholar]
  10. Clement, J. (1982). Students’ preconceptions in introductory mechanics. American Journal of Physics, 50(1), 66–71. [Google Scholar]
  11. Cobern, W.W. (1996). Constructivism and non-Westem science education research. International Journal of Science Education, 18, 295–310. [Google Scholar]
  12. DeHart Hurd, P. (1998). Scientific literacy: New minds for a changing world. Science Education, 82, 407–416. [Google Scholar]
  13. Désautels, J. (1998). Une Éducation aux technosciences pour l’action sociale. In La Recherche en didactique au service de l’enseignement (pp. 9–27). Marrakech, Marocco: Université Cadi Ayyad. [Google Scholar]
  14. Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school. New York: Teachers College Press. [Google Scholar]
  15. Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R.-L. Punamäki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 19–38). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  16. Epstein, S. (1995). The construction of lay expertise: AIDS activism and the forging of credibility in the reform of clinical trials. Science, Technology, and Human Values, 20, 408–437. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Epstein, S. (1997). Activism, drug regulation, and the politics of therapeutic evaluation in the AIDS era: A case study of ddC and the ’surrogate markers’ debate. Social Studies of Science, 27, 691–726. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Freidson, E. (1970). The profession of medicine. New York: Dodd Mead. [Google Scholar]
  19. Fotopoulos, T. (1995). Direct and economic democracy in ancient Athens and its significance today. Democracy and Nature, 1, 3–17. [Google Scholar]
  20. Fotopoulos, T. (1999a). Social ecology, eco-communitarianism and inclusive democracy. Democracy & Nature, 5, 561–576. [Google Scholar]
  21. Fotopoulos, T. (1999b). Welfare state or economic democracy? Democracy & Nature, 5, 433–468. [Google Scholar]
  22. Fourez, G. (1997). Scientific and technological literacy as a social practice. Social Studies of Science, 27, 903–936. [Google Scholar]
  23. Fuller, S. (1997). Science. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. [Google Scholar]
  24. Giddens, A. (1994). Beyond left and right: The future of radical politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]
  25. Gilbert, G.N., & Mulkay, M. (1984). Opening Pandora’s box: A sociological analysis of scientists’ discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  26. Harris, K. (1998). Mathematics teachers as democratic agents. Zentralblatt für Didaktik der Mathematik / International Reviews on Mathematical Education, 30(6), 174–180. [Google Scholar]
  27. Held, D., & McGrew, A. (2000). The global transformation reader. Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]
  28. Hodson, D. (1999). Going beyond cultural pluralism: Science education for sociopolitical action. Science Education, 83, 775–796. [Google Scholar]
  29. Irwin, A., & Wynne, B. (1996). Misunderstanding science? New York: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  30. Jenkins, E.W. (1999). School science, citizenship and the public understanding of science. International Journal of Science Education, 21, 703–710. [Google Scholar]
  31. Knorr-Cetina, K.D. (1992). The couch, the cathedral, and the laboratory: On the relationship between experiment and laboratory in science. In A. Pickering (Ed.), Science as practice and culture (pp. 113–138). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]
  32. Kolstoe, S.D. (2000). Consensus projects: Teaching science for citizenship. International Journal of Science Education, 22, 645–664. [Google Scholar]
  33. Larochelle, M. (2002). Science education as an exercise in disciplining versus a practice of/for social empowerment. In W.-M. Roth & J. Désautels (Eds.), Science education as/for sociopolitical action (pp. 209–236). New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar]
  34. Latour, B. (1999). Pandora’s hope: Essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]
  35. Laugksch, R.C. (2000). Scientific literacy: A conceptual overview. Science Education, 84, 71–94. [Google Scholar]
  36. Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  37. Lave, J. (1993). The practice of learning. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 3–32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  38. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  39. Lee, S., & Roth, W.-M. (2001). How ditch and drain become a healthy creek: Representations, translations and agency during the re/design of a watershed. Social Studies of Science, 31, 315–356. [Google Scholar]
  40. Lenoir, T. (1993). The discipline of nature and the nature of disciplines. In E. Messer-Davidov, D.R. Shumway, & D.J. Sylvan (Eds.), Knowledges: Historical and critical studies in discipli-narity (pp. 70–102). Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. [Google Scholar]
  41. Leont’ev, A.N. (1978). Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. [Google Scholar]
  42. Lewis, B.F., & Aikenhead, G.S. (2001). Introduction: Shifting perspectives from universalism to cross-culturalism. Science Education, 85, 3–5. [Google Scholar]
  43. Lewontin, R.C. (1991). Biology as ideology: The doctrine of DNA. New York: Harper. [Google Scholar]
  44. Martin, B., & Richards, E. (1995). Scientific knowledge, controversy, and public decision-making. In S. Jasanoff, G. E. Markle, J.C. Petersen, & T. Pinch (Eds.), Handbook of science and technology studies (pp. 506–526). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Google Scholar]
  45. Martin, E. (1998). Anthropology and the cultural study of science. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 23, 24–44. [Google Scholar]
  46. McDermott, R.P. (1993). The acquisition of a child by a learning disability. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 269–305). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  47. McGinn, M.K., & Roth, W.-M. (1999). Towards a new science education: Implications of recent research in science and technology studies. Educational Researcher, 28 (3), 14–24. [Google Scholar]
  48. Pickering, A. (1995). The mangle of practice: Time, agency, & science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]
  49. Pinch, T. (1990). The sociology of the scientific community. In R.C. Olby, G.N. Cantor, J.R.R. Christie, & M.J.S. Hodge (Eds.), Companion to the history of modern science (pp. 87–99). London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  50. Quicke, J. (2001). The science curriculum and education for democracy in the risk society. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 33, 113–127. [Google Scholar]
  51. Rabeharisoa, V., & Callon, M. (1999). Le Pouvoir des malades. Paris: Les Presses de l’École des Mines. [Google Scholar]
  52. Restivo, S. (1988). Modem science as a social problem. Social Problems, 35, 206–225. [Google Scholar]
  53. Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J.W. Wertsch, P. Del Rio, & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139–164). New York: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
  54. Roth, W.-M. (2002). Taking science education beyond schooling. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 2, 37–48. [Google Scholar]
  55. Roth, W.-M., & Barton, A.C. (2004). Rethinking scientific literacy. New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  56. Roth, W.-M., & Lee, S. (2002). Scientific literacy as collective praxis. Public Understanding of Science, 11, 33–56. [Google Scholar]
  57. Roth, W.-M., & Lee, S. (2004). Science education as/for participation in the community. Science Education. [Google Scholar]
  58. Rowe, G., & Frewer, L.J. (2000). Public participation methods: A framework for evaluation. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 25, 3–29. [Google Scholar]
  59. Rutherford, F.J., & Ahlgren, A. (1990). Science for all Americans. New York: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]
  60. Saxe, G.B. (1991). Culture and cognitive development: Studies in mathematical understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. [Google Scholar]
  61. Sears, A. (in press). Crisis as vehicle for educational reform: The case of citizenship education. In Y. Hébert & A. Laperrière (Eds.), Identity and citizenship: Canadian and international perspectives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  62. Skovsmose, O. (1998). Aporism: Uncertainty about mathematics. Zentralblatt für Didaktik der Mathematics, 98(3), 88–94. [Google Scholar]
  63. Stanley, W.B., & Brickhouse, N.W. (2001). Teaching sciences: The multicultural question revisited. Science Education, 85, 35–49. [Google Scholar]
  64. Sternberg, R.J. (2001). Metacognition, abilities, and developing expertise: What makes an expert student? In H.J. Hartman (Ed.), Metacognition in learning and instruction (pp. 247–260). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic. [Google Scholar]
  65. Ungar, S. (2000). Knowledge, ignorance and the popular culture: Climate change versus the ozone hole. Public Understanding of Science, 9, 297–312. [Google Scholar]
  66. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class lads get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. [Google Scholar]

Articles from Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES