Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning ― The Experiences of Minoritised Groups

Science plays an important role in our societies and permeates cultural practices through the mass media, schooling and museums, as well as politics and personal decision-making. But to what extent is public or everyday science learning an educational, cultural or political resource accessible to everyone? This book presents a theoretically informed, empirically detailed analysis of how minoritised people negotiate encounters with science and everyday science learning resources in their lives.

While research into everyday science learning, science communication and public engagement with science has grown over the last three decades, few studies have analysed the success of attempts to make science more public. Unlike most other research studies about science, learning and publics, which tend to focus on those already involved in or interested in specific science learning activities, this book investigates attitudes towards and experiences of a range of different public science activities from the perspectives of those considered to be science outsiders. Drawing on a qualitative, ethnographic study carried out in London, the book includes perspectives of 60 people from minority ethnic, socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning argues that placing equity at the heart of everyday science learning and public science practices is crucial if we wish to disrupt, rather than reproduce, social disadvantages. As such, it will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduates interested in the sociology of education; adult education and lifelong learning, education studies and the sociology of science and technology.

Emily Dawson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. Her work focuses on how people engage with and learn about science, with an emphasis on equity, in particular the construction of publics and ‘non’ publics for science, and the role of privilege in such processes.