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Education, communication, and science in the public sphere
Author(s) -
Feinstein Noah Weeth
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.21192
Subject(s) - constructive , science communication , public sphere , science education , ideal (ethics) , sociology , democracy , narrative , field (mathematics) , science, technology, society and environment education , public awareness of science , scientific literacy , epistemology , pedagogy , political science , law , computer science , politics , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , process (computing) , pure mathematics , operating system
In the 1920s, John Dewey and Walter Lippmann both wrote important books examining whether the public was capable of playing a constructive role in policy, particularly when specialized knowledge was involved. This essay uses the Lippmann–Dewey debate to identify new challenges for science education and to explore the relationship between science education and science communication. It argues that science education can help foster democracy in ways that embody Habermas' ideal of the public sphere, but only if we as a field pay more attention to (1) the non‐scientific frames and narratives that people use to interpret news about science, (2) the “second shaping” of scientific facts by the media, and (3) emerging platforms for public engagement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52:145–163, 2015.