Developing students' engagement with S&T teaching
In the project we focus on how the teaching of science and technology (S&T) can be developed to strengthen the students' experience of feeling at home in science and technology.
The background of the project is that the team for the science and technology program at Timrå Gymnasium contacted the ULF group at MIUN just over a year ago. Contact was mediated to IMD and a research circle on the theme "Students' scientific/technical identities" was started. During the research circle, we have been particularly interested in students' scientific and technical capital in the form of knowledge, attitudes, experiences and personal contacts. The research circle ended in March 2023. In the research circle, the concept of Science Capital (Archer, Dawson, DeWitt, Seakins & Wong, 2015) has been important for developing the group's common understanding of students' NT identities.
The concept of Science Capital has been developed in the UK, including as part of the Enterprising Science project in 2013 - 2018 (University of London, 2023) and briefly refers to an individual's scientifically related forms of social and cultural capital (DeWitt, Archer & Mau, 2016). A proposal for a Swedish translation is scientific capital with a focus on science and technology (IVA, 2023), which is used here and abbreviated to scientific capital. Scientific capital is divided into eight dimensions (Godec, King & Archer, 2017, p. 8). Four of the dimensions concern experiences that pupils gain in their spare time and in activities outside of school, for example in conversations with their family or in media consumption.
Archer, L., Dawson, E., DeWitt, J., Seakins, A., & Wong, B. (2015). “Science capital”: A conceptual, methodological, and empirical argument for extending bourdieusian notions of capital beyond the arts. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(7), 922–948. doi: 10.1002/tea.21227
DeWitt, J., Archer L. & Mau, A. (2016). Dimensions of science capital: exploring its potential for understanding students’ science participation. International Journal of Science Education, 38:16, 2431-2449. doi: 10.1080/09500693.2016.1248520
Godec, S., King, H. & Archer, L. (2017). The Science Capital Teaching Approach: engaging students with science, promoting social justice. University College London.
Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA). 2023. Vetenskapligt kapital med fokus på teknik och naturvetenskap. https://www.iva.se/globalassets/bilder/projekt/framtidens-kunskapssamhalle/202302-iva-vetenskapligtkapital-rapport.pdf
University of London. (2023, 23 mars). Enterprising Science. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/departments/education-practice-and-society/stem-participation-social-justice-research/enterprising-science
Facts
Project period
230801-241031
Subjects
Research groups
Project leader
