This paper discusses the value of a Freirean liberatory perspective in community colleges, countering the traditional "second chance" or "social reproduction" viewpoints attributed by scholars to the education offered in these institutions, emphasizing its vital need in science and healthcare careers education. I explore the…

This article explores ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) through a Freirean lens of critical consciousness, dialogue, and transformation. The purpose is to draw from where there have been processes of engagement of sociopolitical action in science and how these spaces can become meaningful entry points to take toward making a…

When secondary school students were asked about the socioscientific issue of using sodium fluoroacetate (1080) poison to control New Zealand's possum pests, they provided a wide range of responses. Their responses showed that they considered this method of control to be risky and contentious. Such contentious issues are an example of the…

Amid a broader sociopolitical milieu of division, disagreement, and uncivil debate, this study investigates instances of disagreement among students in a high school science classroom as they attempt to answer the civic question of "what should we do" about climate change, a long contentious topic in the USA. Using a theoretical…

Gene technologies are developing at a high speed. Yet, the understandings and ethical conceptions about these developments are not sufficiently scrutinized and reflected. Our qualitative analysis examines everyday myths of younger generations about genome editing; these contribute to a complex fabric of rationally and intuitively justified…

The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary challenges in recent history. Amidst this global crisis, various controversies have been emerging about how to manage the virus, ranging from whether face masks should be required as a preventive measure to whether hydroxychloroquine is an…

Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), like other complex social and environmental issues, is a controversy about science which raises educational questions about how best to prepare young people to understand, respond to and, where necessary, act (or not) in response. It raises political questions. We present a state-of-the-art review of research…

In the twenty-first century, the rise and support of fascism-related views threaten freedom of speech, freedom of sexual orientation, religious tolerance and progressive agendas that advocate equity. We argue that mainstream science education generally does not, but should, educate students against fascism-related views--such as racism, sexism,…

In this article, I use the idea of post-patrimonial governance to consider the science education of future scientists. I argue, with Anna Yeatman, that the politics of our time is structured by a contest between two kinds of post-patrimonial contractualism. Data are reported from a study of contemporary Australian scientists to show that some…

In life history methodologies, 'human' lives appear to take primacy over other lives. Within science education literature, life history methods often are approached as reflective tools to make meaning out of teachers' pedagogical practices and commitments. In the present research, we tinker with life history research, to follow its performative…

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to a plethora of information published in the media. Conceived as a socioscientific issue of great relevance currently, this article highlight the educational potential of some media news about the pandemic to reflect and learn about the nature of science (NOS). To this end, a…

In this article, we discuss the tensions surrounding science, biopower, and citizenship that have been thrown into sharp relief by the COVID 19 pandemic. We situate these tensions in the epistemological and political conflict between science, public health education, and alternative medical systems that has been rekindled by the pandemic in India.…

Socio-scientific issues and socially acute questions enable moral judgement through rational, emotional, intuitive and imaginative thinkings. Our research focuses more specifically on the place of the myth in student discussions about controversial issues. We have analysed the mythemes expressed through online exchanges between students from…

This academic position paper focuses on building a bridge between public health and science education in order to recognize the relationships between science and society--politics, economics, and ideology--in a pandemic context. To do this, we first present the contemporary dispute between the ways of understanding and explaining public health…

Inspired by Torres-Olave and Bravo's original paper, entitled 'Facing Neoliberalism through Dialogic Spaces as Sites of Hopes in Science Education: Experiences of two Self-Organized Communities', the present essay considers potential contexts to resist neoliberal models of science education. This paper discusses affordances of themes and notions…