Student Teachers as Advocates for Student-Led Research-Informed Socioscientific Activism

Progress has been made in addressing socioscientific issues, such as debates about merits of nuclear power, by encouraging school students to consider complex issues and take positions about them. We contend, however, that they also need to learn to take research-informed actions to address issues. In the study reported here, we concluded—based on constant comparative analyses of qualitative data—that student teachers seemed to develop commitments to advocacy for research-informed actions on socioscientific issues as a result, in part, of their self-directed primary and secondary research. This research appears to have implications for science teacher education, science education, and the well-being of individuals, societies, and environments.