Science Teacher Education for Responsible Citizenship: Towards a Pedagogy for Relevance Through Socioscientific Issues

This edited book aims to provide a global perspective on socioscientific issues (SSI), responsible citizenship and the relevance of science, with an emphasis on science teacher education. The volume, with more than twenty-five contributors from Africa, North and South America, Asia, Australasia and Europe, focuses on examples from in- and pre-service teacher training. The contributors expand on issues related to teachers’ beliefs about teaching SSI, teachers’ challenges when designing and implementing SSI-related activities, the role of professional development, both in pre- and in-service teacher training, in promoting SSI, the role of the nature of science when teaching SSI, promoting scientific practices through SSI in pre-service teaching, and the role of indigenous knowledge in SSI teaching. Finally, the book discusses new perspectives for addressing SSI in teacher education through the lens of relevance and responsible citizenship.

Maria Evagorou is an Associate Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Her scholarly activity focuses on exploring and enhancing young students’ and pre-service teachers’ argumentation skills within socioscientific issues. More specifically, the emphasis of her work is on students’ and teachers’ talk when they engage in the discussion of SSI and aims to explore ways in which teachers can be supported in their effort to include SSI in their teaching s. She has worked as a principal investigator and senior researcher on various EU and local research projects, served as a member on the JRST editorial board, and as a strand coordinator for ESERA, and has published widely.
Jan Alexis Nielsen is Associate Professor at the Department of Science Education at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His research focuses on the understanding and assessment of generic competences. He has investigated students’ socioscientific argumentation and teachers’ beliefs about teaching socioscientific issues. He has also worked closely with teachers to build assessment frameworks for inquiry, modelling and innovation competence. Over the past 12 years, he has participated in a range of international and national projects related to inquiry and/or socioscientific issues.
Justin Dillon is professor of science and environmental education at the University of Exeter. After studying for a degree in chemistry, he trained as a science teacher at Chelsea College and taught in six inner London schools. Justin joined King’s College London in 1989 and was promoted to professor in 2009. He is editor-in-chief of Studies in Science Education and co-edits the International Journal of Science Education. In 2007, Justin was elected President of the European Science Education Research Association. He has co-edited 18 books including Becoming a Teacher, Bad Education and the International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education. Justin has published around 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and almost the same number of book chapters.