Meaningful participation of schools in scientific research through contributory citizen science projects

Bibliographic Data

ID21392705
AuthorsOsnat Atias (0000-0001-5798-4766, Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences, Faculty of Education University of Haifa Haifa Israel, corresponding author), Yael Kali (0000-0003-0930-6244, Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences, Faculty of Education University of Haifa Haifa Israel), Ayelet Shavit (0000-0002-4683-0857, Department of Humanities and Arts Technion ‐ Israel Institute of Technology Haifa Israel), Ayelet Baram-Tsabari (0000-0002-8123-5519, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology Technion ‐ Israel Institute of Technology Haifa Israel)
Year2023
Volume107
Issue5
Pages1163-1192
Publication date2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21800
OpenAlexW4379743036
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited81

School‐based citizen science offers a way for students and teachers to collaborate with scientists and take part in multiple facets of research such as data collection and analysis, and sometimes research initiation, co‐design, and reporting of findings. However, most citizen science projects offered to schools are of the contributory type, often regarded as a lesser form of participation since the role of nonscientific participants lies mostly in data collection. The current study set out to examine the potential of contributory projects to afford—despite their limitations—more equitable power relations between schools and scientists and a meaningful participation of schools in scientific research. We view meaningful participation as such that embodies students' and teachers' responsibility over scientific processes or outcomes. Nine pairs of teachers and scientists who collaborated in contributory‐based projects were asked to think aloud as they answered a questionnaire regarding their experiences, resulting with rich commentary on how they perceived relationships between the schools and the scientists. Analysis of the think‐aloud data, using a framework based on the notion of reciprocity in university‐community partnerships, indicated that most teachers and scientists developed a sense of reciprocal relations where both sides are acknowledged contributors, some even deeply so. We discuss factors influencing the emergence of reciprocity and implications towards the premise of school‐based citizen science to democratize science and change traditional power relations in school‐based citizen science collaborations

Citizen science · Data collection · Epistemology · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Power (physics) · Premise · Public relations · Reciprocal · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) · Science education · Set (abstract data type) · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Psychology · Species Distribution and Climate Change · Zoonotic diseases and public health

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