HPS Engaged: teaching for critical engagement with science
Nowadays, ‘engaging the public’ regarding important subjects has risen in importance, compared to only educating them. The one-way communication flow seems to fail when communicating scientific findings. We are in need of professionals with a deep understanding of how science works and how its public use is entangled with political, cultural and moral sensitivities. These entanglements are studied in the interdisciplinary master History and Philosophy of Science (HPS). For that reason, a new track is developed for the incorporation of public engagement in the HPS master. This USO project aims to define the content and format for the track.
Background
Meaningful and effective public engagement requires professionals with a deep understanding of how science works and how its public use is entangled with political, cultural and moral sensitivities. These entanglements are precisely what we study in the interdisciplinary master History and Philosophy of Science(HPS). For that reason, we want to incorporate public engagement in the HPS master in the form of a new track. The track will combine the expertise of the lecturers of HPS, the Science Education and Communication(SEC) master and the Communication Profile. This new public engagement track will use these foundations of expertise to create a coherent, innovative and appealing track of the highest quality. The combination of a broad vision on public engagement with critical reflection and intellectual depth distinguishes it from existing science communication programs within the UU and at other Dutch universities.
Project description
Phase 1: May – Aug 2022:
Phase 2: Sep – Dec 2022:
Phase 3: Jan-Apr 2023:
Phase 4: from September 2023:
Aims
The aim of the project is to design a coherent track on public engagement within the HPS master. The project contributes to the aim of the Science Faculty to “support public engagement and to increase the visibility of our societally relevant research.” Secondly, the public engagement track is highly relevant for the UU strategic themes Pathways to Sustainability (especially its Sustainability Education and Engagement community) and Institutions for Open Societies, as well as for Open Science (especially the new Open Education initiative).
Results
The precise format of the track will be formulated during this project, but it will be defined within the elective course space of the master (max. 37.5 EC) and the internship (15 EC).
This involves:
Dissemination
Dissemination is at the core of this project: the goal is that our students will use their skills to effectively engage with a wide and diverse audience, both during their internship and after graduation.
The development work and the experience of this new track can be used to strengthen the Communication Profile, potentially benefitting students from all GSNS and GSLS master programmes. Furthermore, lessons from the USO program could blend into train-the-trainer material that FI is thinking to develop for other faculties.