Science today

This wide-ranging volume gathers contributions from leading researchers in science and science education who examine how science fits into public policy, classroom teaching, and everyday public education. The chapters respond to one another, forming a connected conversation about how people learn science both inside schools and outside them.

The contributors take on the contested questions within science as a core school subject. They weigh the tension between teaching science to everyone and preparing future professional scientists, and they expose assumptions that have long shaped the conventional picture of what science is. Many chapters propose concrete remedies.

The editors contend that science will only have a stronger future if its public role is debated openly, and that this requires dismantling the divisions separating scientists, teachers, and the wider public.