Bezzon R – PCST Network

Author: Rodolfo Bezzon – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Co-authors:

Alessandra Bizerra – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Brazil is a continent-size country, with a diverse culture and even more diverse people. Despite all this richness, we have come to find our country has about 0.1 science center/museum per 100 thousand citizens, and some states do not have a single science institution while others have less than 5, meaning that these science institutions do not ensure science communication access. Other researches show that poor and working-class people, no matter what age and educational background, are the ones that hardly ever visit these places and also are the least interested in science and technology issues, but this also affects all social classes, because even the upper classes do not visit science center and museums frequently, which probably have to do with the low number of institutions per citizens cited previously. Building up the problem, Brazilians see religious leaders more reliable than scientists, contributing to an unsatisfying science communication (and also signaling we must do something about it). With all that said and using Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework to interpret this data, we have a lack of science-related out-of-school structures (science-culture ‘goods’) to communicate and keep our people interested in science and technology. Aiming to tackle this problem, we are conducting a research with two goals: first one, to map São Paulo state’s science and technology institutions and also their visitors, in an attempt to better understand and scale one of Brazil’s most populated state scientific ‘goods’ (in this case materialized as science centers and museums) and with that and our analysis, the second goal is to better inform politicians and stakeholders into actions and policies to improve our science communication.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Transformation

Author: Rodolfo Bezzon – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Co-authors:

Alessandra Bizerra – University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Most works using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) tend to fall on the qualitative side of the research approach continuum, because this theoretical framework emphasizes a deep analysis of the cultural-historical context in which the individual is immersed and also an analysis of her/his activity in this context and, considering the methodological characteristics of the qualitative methods, they do fulfill these requirements more easily. Nonetheless, quantitative research is also necessary to better understand the problem being investigated, because quantitative methods shed light in ways that qualitative cannot. Although we agree that a precise distinction between both methods is unnecessary, we do believe that there are characteristics in their strategies that are worth to keep in mind and that some researches and papers abstain themselves of the bigger debate: the theoretical lens they are using. The theoretical framework is the one that will guide the researchers throughout the process and signify their results, support their analyses and, in some cases, even determine which questions can be asked. Despite all that, some researchers do not make it clear which theoretical lens they are using, they simply jump straight forward to the methodology and, thus, undermine the consistency of their own work. In this sense, our research group is trying to develop new ways to work with CHAT in science communication activities, especially in quantitative approaches, for two main reasons: 1) make our analysis more robust, by adding different research approaches we can analyze the problem through different angles; 2) develop CHAT and test the theory’s limits and possibilities in science communication comprehension. So right now, we are trying to find ways to make our questionnaire dialogue with CHAT and thus build up a more coherent analysis of science communication perceptions and practices in different cultural-historical contexts.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Transformation

Science institutions’ distribution and their role in science communication access

Quantitative approaches to complement understanding in science communication activities

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