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107 publications found

Feb 11, 2026 Practice Insight
Exploring science with children from under-represented groups through shared interests: Insights from a decade of practice

by Laura Hobbs, Sarah Behenna, Carly Stevens and Calum Hartley

Through a series of projects dating back to 2015, the Science Hunters programme has delivered eight ‘Minecraft Clubs’ to engage children with Special Educational Needs, care-experienced children, and children in low socioeconomic status areas with science, technology, engineering, and maths. Science concepts are used as themes to build around, rather than the key focus of the activity, which is communal gameplay and having fun. Delivery has been developed through reflective practice, insights from which are drawn upon to extract key takeaways for engaging children with science outside of traditional settings through community-based activities and existing interests. These include drawing on the experiences of those with relevant backgrounds in design and delivery approaches, embedding STEM content rather than making it a primary feature of the activity, seeking and incorporating participants’ input, and having alternative approaches and resources available to facilitate accommodation of different needs and circumstances.

Volume 25 • Issue 2 • 2026 • Science communication in Unexpected Places (Unexpected places)

Nov 04, 2025 Practice Insight
Science communication and intersectionality: Quilombola women and the dialogue on inequality and resistance

by Ivonete da Silva Lopes, Daniela de Ulysséa Leal and Jonathan Fagundes da Silva

This article adopts the perspective of inclusive science communication by approaching the interface between science, technology, intersectionality, and the experience of female Quilombola leaders in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Quilombolas are an ethnic-racial group of Black origins associated with oppression and resistance over the centuries, particularly against slavery during the colonial period. The primary strategy for engaging these women with science was the web series Meios de Prosa (Means of Prose), developed across three seasons. Twelve women, aged between 21 and 73, shared their experiences of early labor, racism, community leadership, and resistance in the context of their access, use, and appropriation of information and communication technologies (ICT).

Volume 24 • Issue 05 • 2025

Oct 22, 2025 Practice Insight
From event enjoyment to career aspirations: how inclusive science engagement shapes participant perspectives

by Soumaiya Imarraine and Nicole Ortiz

Promoting inclusion in science is essential for enhancing public understanding, strengthening science literacy, and addressing structural barriers to participation. To support this goal, we organized a science fair in a suburban city near Paris (France), featuring hands-on, inquiry-based activities designed to be accessible and inclusive. The event attracted a diverse audience, including groups underrepresented in science due to gender and socioeconomic background. Participant feedback emphasized the value of active engagement and direct interaction with scientists. Our findings demonstrate that inclusive, community-based outreach can effectively foster interest in science and support broader participation.

Volume 24 • Issue 05 • 2025

Jul 10, 2025 Practice Insight
Seedling science communication in rural areas through European researchers' night

by Raquel Branquinho, Maria Inês Duarte, Cândida Sarabando, Susana Ambrósio, Cláudia Damião, Eduardo Teixeira, Joaquim Duarte and Xana Sá-Pinto

This paper presents a practical insight based on the case study of the European Researchers' Night held in the rural village of Armamar, northern Portugal. By moving this initiative beyond traditional academic and urban settings, we helped bridge the gap between science and rural communities, and democratise access to science through a co-creation process, deep-rooted community partnerships, and active student engagement. Drawing from the RERN-Armamar blueprint, we highlight the importance of promoting and/or building from locally established networks of partners, including the school community. Local ambassadors with a diverse range of profiles can act as multipliers, engaging researchers from diverse institutions, teachers, students and their families. Context sensitive formats which promote inclusive, equitable, and sustainable access to science, in addition to the alignment of content with community interests, has further contributed to the success of the action.

Volume 24 • Issue 04 • 2025

Jul 24, 2024 Practice Insight
Citizen science and science communication: toward a more inclusive pattern?

by Federica Cagnoli

Despite research calls in citizen science and science communication for more participatory approaches, practical attempts are uncommon. This practice insight focuses on a significant barrier to adopting a participatory approach — the lack of inclusion. In this project, I identified the barriers and determinants of inclusion through a literature review, and then I developed and tested a framework applicable to participatory science communication projects to determine if projects recognise and address inclusion considerations. I successfully tested the framework using reports from a European citizen science project. By considering inclusion criteria as essential for participatory science communication, this framework may help practitioners account for inclusion considerations during the design and monitoring stages of the project cycle.

Volume 23 • Issue 05 • 2024

Jun 03, 2024 Article
Plants and Peoples exhibit at MUHNAC: analysis of traditional and scientific medicine from the perspective of the Epistemologies of South

by Martha Marandino and Maria Paula Meneses

The article explores the ““Cure, Malaria, Frederic Welwitsch and the Healer”” theme of the exhibition “Plants and Peoples” from the Museum of Natural History and Science, Portugal. The study focuses on the research carried out by German naturalist F. Welwitsch on local plants in Angola as well as on history of lived colonial experience A. M. Mafumo, a healer from Mozambique, arrested for practicing “traditional medicine”. Using the analytical framework of the Epistemologies of the South we analyze the relationships between traditional and scientific knowledge using documentation, as well as interviews with curators and visitors. The article questions the exhibit' dialogue between these knowledges as an expression of an ecology of knowledges.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

Jun 03, 2024 Essay
Fugitive publics: sex, sexuality, and science communication

by Chase Ledin

This article attends to the absences and silences of sexual identity and knowledge in science communication scholarship. It locates identitarian debates within this scholarship and utilises queer theory to encourage a shift towards a post-identitarian approach to conceptualising sex (as a social act) in science communication. In this way, this article advocates for a queer science communication that critically examines normative identities, practices, institutions, and policies, and makes room for subjugated knowledges within science communication theory and practice.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

Jun 03, 2024 Essay
Clashing epistemologies and contrasting injustice: an Aotearoa/ New Zealand case

by Marie McEntee, Mark Harvey and Fabien Medvecky

How, as researchers, do we recognise and address the implicit biases when engaging across multiple knowledge ecologies. In this paper, we consider the way historical and epistemic justice and injustice plays into our knowledge making when dealing with a specific issue: forest biosecurity. Specifically, we focus on the Aotearoa New Zealand context where knowledge making has been, and still is, dominated by a western paradigm, but where there is increasing discussion on mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) as a valid and valuable form of knowing. Drawing on the experiences of a transdisciplinary research programme that sought to examine the human dimensions of biosecurity aspects of the plant pathogens kauri dieback and myrtle rust, we approach our original question using the theoretical concept of epistemic injustice and draw on our experiences as a way to highlight instances and forms of epistemic injustice in the science-society relationship. We argue that the division of epistemic labour (into fields, disciplines, etc), and the ranking and assigning of relative epistemic credibility based on this division is a fundamental part of the western knowledge ecology which creates the necessary conditions for specific and potent forms of epistemic injustice. We contrast this by discussing how other knowledge ecologies, specifically mātauranga Māori, comfortably engages with a variety of knowledge and knowers and discuss the possibilities other knowledge ecologies offer.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

May 13, 2024 Practice Insight
Prioritising community over content: value shifts in science centres

by Jennifer DeWitt and Shaaron Leverment

Science centres are increasingly adopting co-development as a tool to engage diverse audiences with science. The case study featured in this practice insight draws on an evaluation of a programme that aimed to move U.K. science centres towards more inclusive practice. Interviews with staff from eight U.K. science centres and their community partner organisations reflected shifts in science centre practitioners' understanding and valuing of co-development approaches, and, especially, the centrality placed on relationships with communities. This case study can contribute to our understanding and help us reflect on how to align our practice with a commitment to equity.

Volume 23 • Issue 03 • 2024

Apr 22, 2024 Book Review
Through the `queering' glass: looking at science communication from a queer lens

by Siddharth Kankaria

`Queering Science Communication' offers a kaleidoscopic collection of queer insights that both inform and question the field of science communication. Edited by Lindy A. Orthia and Tara Roberson, the book covers a diverse range of topics including LGBTQIA+ representation in science and science communication; examples of science engagement interventions designed for queer audiences; the positive and negative impacts of science (communication) on queer lives; as well as ways of queering the practice, research and teaching of science communication. Despite adopting a predominantly queer lens, this book offers various learnings for engaging a broader spectrum of marginalised identities and for eventually moving towards a more inclusive, pluralistic and reflexive science communication field.

Volume 23 • Issue 03 • 2024