Gatsby Benchmarks
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Boost your students’
science capital
Adopting the Science Capital Teaching Approach could boost students’ engagement
and attainment in science and lead more people from diverse backgrounds
into STEM careers, writes Ralph Jones.
ecades of work and millions of
pounds have been invested in
making science more inclusive and
engaging, with little success – as
multinational energy company BP can attest.
One of the 2012 Olympic sponsors, BP created
and delivered a science roadshow that travelled
to schools in every local authority in the UK.
“It didn’t make a long term difference at all,”
recalls Ian Duffy, BP’s head of UK communications
and community development. “No matter what
brilliant, inspiring, uplifting activities you put into
schools, it doesn’t matter a jot unless it’s properly
integrated in how educators are teaching and
guiding kids.”
However, the need to boost and diversify
participation in STEM subjects and careers is
urgent, both to combat contemporary crises
such as climate change and to alter science’s
demographics to better reflect society.
In 2008, the Royal Society investigated the
link between socioeconomic background and
pursuit of a science-related field, finding a
strong correlation. “The higher an individual’s
socioeconomic background, measured in
terms of parental social class or parental
education, the more likely they are to work in
science,” its report said.
Change has been slow over the
past decade. “It’s a social injustice that the
profile of those who continue in the physical
sciences and engineering is so socially narrow,”
says Louise Archer, Karl Mannheim professor
of sociology of education at the University
College London Institute of Education. “I think
it requires intervention to right that.”
It was during Archer’s ASPIRES project at
King’s College London, a 10-year study to
explore how young people form ideas around
STEM, that the term ‘science capital’ gained
traction. While ‘cultural capital’ (coined by
French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu) refers to
the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours
D
42 // STEM
It's a social
injustice that
the profile of
those who
continue in the
physical
sciences and
engineering is
so socially
narrow
and skills that give us social mobility, science
capital is a conceptual tool for measuring an
individual’s exposure to and knowledge
of science.
It can be used to aid understanding of how
social class affects people’s aspirations and
involvement in science and encompasses eight
dimensions from scientific literacy to science
media consumption (see box, right).
ASPIRES tracked how young people
develop their science and career aspirations
from the ages of 10-18, concluding that young
people who had higher levels of science capital
were more likely to aspire to science-related
careers in the future. Conversely, low science
capital limits their opportunities and outcomes
in life and contributes to the shortfall in young
people in the UK choosing STEM subjects.
Meaning and relevance
In 2013, Archer’s concept of science capital
was put at the heart of the Enterprising
Science initiative — a partnership between
University College London, King’s College
London and the Science Museum, led and
funded by BP — developing the Science
Capital Teaching Approach.
T h e i d e a s u n d e r p i n n i n g i t we re
co-developed and trialled over four years
between researchers and 43 secondary
science teachers in England, in a bid to support
educators in helping students find more
meaning and relevance in science and so
engage more with the subject. The approach
aims to ‘broaden what counts’ in the science
classroom, encouraging all students to ‘have
a go’ at answering open questions, highlighting
the diversity of jobs within the STEM sector,
and dispelling the myth that science is only for
certain types of people.
Teachers personalise and localise their
lessons, linking questions to aspects of
students’ lives. They elicit knowledge from