A Critical Analysis of the Democratic Argument for Teaching Science: The Case of Cell Phones

A number of diverse arguments have been proposed by researchers of science education regarding the reason science should be taught in schools. These arguments inevitably play a crucial role in the curriculum designed by policymakers. The present study turns its attention to the democratic argument....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean Educational Researcher Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 3 - 17
Main Authors Kaliampos, George, Kotsis, Konstantinos T, Kornelaki, Athina C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published European Educational Researcher 2023
Subjects
Citizenship Education
Democratic Values
Foreign Countries
Handheld Devices
Knowledge Level
Physics
Public Health
Radiation
Science and Society
Science Education
Telecommunications
Greece
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Summary:A number of diverse arguments have been proposed by researchers of science education regarding the reason science should be taught in schools. These arguments inevitably play a crucial role in the curriculum designed by policymakers. The present study turns its attention to the democratic argument. It explores its validity through a special socio-scientific issue that citizens are likely to encounter in their everyday life, that of radiation emitted from cell phones. In particular, it tries to study the required knowledge of physics that will enable individuals to effectively deal with the emission of radiation from cell phones. Moreover, drawing from sharp conflicts that have arisen during the last years around the world between citizens and cell phone companies regarding the installation of cell towers within residential areas, it tries to record information about different places in the world where the cell phone controversy has made headline news.