What differences have been noted in literacy among different sections of the society and States
Answers
As discussed in Chapter 2, there are four rationales for the importance of science literacy. Three of these arguments (economic, democratic, and cultural) make claims about the value of science literacy for nations and societies. Perhaps the most commonly heard claim is that a more science literate population may help democratic societies make prudent and equitable decisions about policy issues that involve science (European Commission, 1995; Rudolph and Horibe, 2015). However, as discussed in this chapter, the available evidence on science literacy at the society level does not provide enough information to draw conclusions on whether these claims are justified. In this chapter, we review available evidence on science literacy from national and international analyses, focusing on what is known about science literacy and its correlates at the macro level, and we identify areas where evidence is lacking. In our review, we consider different countries as different societies, characterized generally by different cultures, level of economic development, and form of governance. Chapter 4 will further delineate the differences between a society and a community.
TWO RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES
Research on science literacy at the level of a nation or whole society can be split into two perspectives. The first relies on data about individuals, usually collected through large public opinion surveys with representative samples of a population. Aggregating these data and examining them as a whole or by subgroup offers insight into broad patterns of attributes such as awareness,
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Suggested Citation:"3 Science Literacy in Society and the World." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23595.×
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knowledge, and attitudes. This sort of analysis might examine, for instance, the relationship between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward scientific research, looking for patterns within and across countries. We refer to this as the aggregate perspective. As we discuss below, the vast majority of scholarly inquiry into science literacy at the whole-society level, as well as much of the public discourse on science literacy, has adopted this perspective. The aggregate perspective treats all participants in the national sample as individuals and their contribution to science literacy at the society level are represented by statistical means or variances.
The second perspective, which the committee thinks has great potential value, focuses on social structures that likely contribute to science literacy, a broad category that could include (but is not limited to) formal policies and institutions (e.g., schools and the scientific establishment) as well as emergent cultural properties such as norms of political participation, social and economic stratification, and the presence of diverse groups and worldviews. This sort of analysis might examine, for instance, how open meeting laws and other governance structures shape the participation of citizens in science-related decisions, how large-scale information networks affect access to science information, and/or how particular subgroups of citizens differ in their perspective on scientific issues. We refer to this as the structural perspective. Though there has been relatively little research on science literacy from a structural perspective, we discuss later in this chapter how such an approach might help move the field forward.
The two perspectives should be understood as complementary rather than competing ways of understanding the nature and effects of science literacy at the whole-society level. On one hand, the knowledge and attitudes of individuals—attributes that are the focus of the aggregate perspective—influence society through social interaction, which is mediated by social structures. For example, if there is no platform for citizens to contribute to governance of scientific matters, what they do and do not understand about science may have little effect on policy decisions. On the other hand, social structures inform what people know, think, and feel. For example, membership in a cultural group (Kahan et al., 2011) or connection to a social network (Brossard and Scheufele, 2013; Southwell, 2013) affects what information people have and how they are most likely to interpret that information. Research that examines the intersection of these two perspectives is in its infancy, and more work is required to articulate how the aggregate science literacy of individuals and the social structures that shape their lives combine to affect important social outcomes.
SCIENCE LITERACY ACROSS SOCIETIES
The available research on science literacy at the macro-level focuses on cross-national comparisons. The number of countries administering national