What Do Youth Know About Socioscientific Issues? Reflecting for Sociopolitical Actions

• In Event: Teaching Science for Citizenship, Agency, and Sociopolitical Action

Abstract

Science and technology are argued to have controversial consequences on individuals, societies and environments. Citizens’ socio-political activism seems paramount to address these consequences. This paper reports on Venezuelan students’ socio-political actions on socioscientific issues highly relevant to them. It particularly focuses on students’ commitment to act and their types of actions in-relation to systematic reflection-in and on-actions (Schön, 1983). We argue that these practices have improved students’ understanding of socioscientific issues and encouraged them to take strategic decisions regarding their actions: Two outcomes that seem to increase students’ commitment to activism. We discuss their prioritized choices and the significance of our findings to activist science education.

Authors

• Majd Zouda, University of Toronto

• Tomo Nishizawa

• John Lawrence Bencze, OISE/University of Toronto