CFP: ESHS - Symposium on "Science for children"
CALL FOR PAPERS for a session at the ESHS Conference,
Lisbon, 4-6 September 2014.
Science for children has often been enmeshed with moral,
religious and
social agendas in more or less obvious ways. In this
sense,
understanding the way science has been communicated to the youngest can
offer insights
into how science has been used for shaping tomorrow’s
citizens. Did
these campaigns really contribute to strengthening the
technological
foundations of modern societies? What do we actually know about the
means, the
actors, the strategies, the contexts, and the outcomes
surrounding science
communication targeted at a pre-teenage audience in
various places and
at various times? While research on popular science has made
significant
progress in the last decades, science for children is a
topic that is,
with few exceptions, largely understudied. This session
intends to bundle the
existing approaches and bringing people with various
backgrounds
together to discuss “science for children” from a historical
perspective.
Participants are invited to address issues such as:
- Sources:
Books, juvenile encyclopedias, comics, serials, sticker
collections,
newspapers, science toys and games, television programs
and films for
children. Science topics covered. Ways of representing
science.
Popular science
books for children versus popular science books for
adults.
- Reception:
Children as an audience: children´s reception of popular
science books
in public libraries. Children´s reception of television
science shows.
Preferred topics.
- Actors:
Children as authors. Ways of representing science. Editors
and educators.
Parents and politicians.
- Institutions:
Science education for children (curricula, text
books).
Science clubs,
science fairs and science museums for children.
- Strategies:
Popular science books versus school science textbooks
for children.
Opening minds to new ideas versus framing minds for
learning?
Iconography,
literary styles, rhetorical devices and types of
discourse used in science
texts for children.
- Ideologies:
Influence of political, religious, moral and social
codes on the way
science is communicated to children.
- International
circulation and local appropriation.
This call is open for other tantalizing questions.
Please, feel free to
make your contribution.
Deadline for submission of paper proposals: 1 January
2014
Please send me an abstract in English (maximum 400-words,
including
title, name(s) & affiliation(s) of the author(s)) (isabel.zilhao@gmail.com).
Isabel Zilhão
Interuniversity Center for the History of Science and
Technology
(CIUHCT)
Faculty of sciences, C4 building, room 4.1.16, Campo
Grande
1749-016 Lisboa
Portugal