Scientific research in the contex of epistemology – Searching new practices for scientific research and public communication of science in Peru
Author: Nemesio Espinoza – Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru
Co-authors:
- Andrea Geipel – Technical University of Munich and Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany
- Lê Nguyên Hoang – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Craig Rosa – KQED, United States
- Gianna Savoie – University of Otago, New Zealand
Peru is a country of wealth in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. However, it is an immensely poor country. Under such conditions, the production and dissemination of science in the university, which should be priority activities, are still undeveloped. Considering that in the present times it is impossible to promote the development of societies without science and technology, this paper focuses on raising two binding policies for the university: 1) Scientific research, whose main purpose is the production of science and technology, are priority activities and should be carried out in the light of epistemology; and, 2) Public Communication of Science should be a mandatory activity.
The above approaches have validity considering that in the Peruvian university, highly professionalizing and unscientific, scientific research is not considered as an essential mission and the teaching of Epistemology is non-existent, for which reason science is not produced in the conditions and qualities that modernity demands. As evidence of the latter, the “automatic baccalaureate” culture, consisting in granting a bachelor’s degree without a thesis, that is, without research, is still in force for more than three decades. Furthermore, the Public Communication of Science is completely absent in the university. In Peru, of the top four universities in the national rankings of 150, none has a scientific dissemination unit.
Due to the considerations raised, it is necessary to seek new practices in terms of Scientific Research and Public Communication of Science in the framework of a university restructuring process, which should focus on claiming its main mission which is the production of scientific research in the context of epistemology.
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation