2022 article

Call for papers: Special issue: Learning and teaching in times of science denial and disinformation

Lombardi, D., & Busch, K. C. (2022, September 2). JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING.

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
Source: Web Of Science
Added: September 12, 2022

Contemporary challenges—such as climate change, food, energy and water security, and deadly virus transmission—call for all people to think critically and scientifically. These challenges are often complex and interrelated; for example, society's increasing demand for energy contributes to the climate crisis, which in turn, could limit freshwater and food supplies, and contribute to worldwide spread of disease (Al-Saidi & Hussein, 2021; Lombardi, 2022). While many societal challenges are seriously impacting local, regional and global communities, an increasing availability of information has contributed to what many call a “Post-Truth Era,” where emotions and personal beliefs override scientifically validated evidence and explanations, and create an atmosphere of distrust and discord (McIntyre, 2018). Scientific and technological advances have a responsibility in ushering in the current science denial era by facilitating the virtually instantaneous and worldwide transmission of information, including information's maladaptive and nefarious form: disinformation (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017). Scientific thinking, learning, and teaching are severely tasked by this treacherous situation of science denial and disinformation (Allchin, 2022; Osborne et al., 2022; Sinatra & Hofer, 2021). Science denial and disinformation are also a worldwide danger to democracy. Over the past several decades, purveyors of science denial and disinformation have honed their crafts by rejecting scientific consensus on such things as tobacco-related health impacts and causes of current climate change (McIntyre, in press). This has created an environment where expertise and justice are rejected via mistrust, where deep and growing political polarizations threaten to thwart understanding of how science and science education can promote a common good (Feinstein & Waddington, 2020). Denial and disinformation about relevant and meaningful socioscientific issues have emerged from disordered identities and values (Gorman & Gorman, 2021). The techniques of science denial have been used to suppress voting rights, community collaboration, and human agency exacerbating inequalities and tensions across racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic lines; ultimately putting in question the world's centuries-long experiment in self-governance and granting fundamental human rights to all people (McIntyre, in press). No single challenge is more urgent than addressing and guarding against these threats to scientific understanding and agency. The review process for the special issue will take place in two stages. In Stage 1, authors will submit an extended abstract that describes key dimensions of the proposed manuscript, including a summary of the manuscript's approach (conceptual analysis, philosophical inquiry, quasi-experimental study, case study, historical analysis, etc.), as well as findings and implications. This extended abstract should not exceed 1000 words (references, tables, and figures are not subject to the word limit). The special issue guest editors will review the extended abstracts submitted in order to invite full manuscript submissions. The review will be guided by the potential of proposed manuscripts to be relevant, advance understanding of science teaching and learning, and have substantial impacts on the field, which are standard criteria for all JRST reviews. We solicit manuscripts based upon empirical data—qualitative, quantitative, or mixed—situated in classrooms, communities and/or informal learning environments, or that offer important theoretical or conceptual insights for the field of science education. In addition to these basic criteria, the guest editors will consider the extent to which manuscripts do one or more of the following: (1) extend in new directions the current work on science education during conditions of science denial and disinformation, (2) introduce new perspectives, conceptual or methodological, from other fields to the corpus of science education literature on learning and teaching in times of science denial and disinformation, and (3) inform policy by on ways to promote effective learning, teaching, and agency when confronted with science denial and disinformation. Submission deadline for extended abstracts: February 1, 2023. Issue date for manuscript invitations: March 15, 2023. Submission deadline for invited manuscripts: September 15, 2023. Submissions of both extended abstracts and manuscripts should follow the publication guidelines for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and be submitted electronically to Manuscript Central (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jrst). In the submission interface, Step 4: Details & Comments, select “Yes” for the Special Issue option, and then select “Science Denial and Disinformation” as the special issue title. For the Stage 1 submission of an Extended Abstract, (1) Leave BLANK the abstract text box found in submission Step 1: Type, Title and Abstract, and (2) Upload the Extended Abstract as a file in submission Step 5: File Upload, labeling it as a “Main Document” in the File Designation pull-down menu. Inquiries concerning the suitability of possible contributions to this special issue should be addressed to one of the Guest Editors via email (see above). If you choose to use the Journal's email address (jrst@unc.edu) for your message, please begin your message by identifying both the Science Denial and Disinformation Special Issue and the Editor(s) you would like your inquiry to reach.