The Role of Public Policy in K-12 Science Education

The goal of this volume of Research in Science Education is to examine the relationship between science education policy and practice and the special role that science education researchers play in influencing policy. Its primary intent is to lay out what I will call the "policy terrain" in science education, those places where policy is relevant to science education. That includes policy decisions that have affected practice in science education, including classroom instruction, curriculum development, and assessment. It also includes discussions of how science education research is used by policymakers in their deliberations about the best policies to enact.

It has been suggested that the science education research community is isolated from the political process, pays little attention to policy matters, and has little influence on policy. But to influence policy, it is important to understand how policy is made and how it is implemented. This volume sheds light on the intersection between policy and practice through both theoretical discussions and practical examples.

This book was written primarily about science education policy development in the context of the highly decentralized educational system of the United States. But, because policy development is fundamentally a social activity involving knowledge, values, and personal and community interests, there are similarities in how education policy gets enacted and implemented around the world. Therefore, two chapters focus on examples of policy development outside the United States. Each example traces the process of policy development from initial vision to final implementation.

This volume is meant to be useful to science education researchers and to practitioners such as teachers and administrators because it provides information about which aspects of the science education enterprise are affected by state, local, and national policies. It also provides helpful information for researchers and practitioners who wonder how they might influence policy. In particular, it points out how the values of people who are affected by policy initiatives are critical to the implementation of those policies.