Science educators: bridging the gap between the scientific community and society

Abstract

The benefits of the science workshop for the general public, universities and research, identified through six years’ experience as a science educator in archaeology within ArkéoTopia, will be established. The conditions these benefits depend on will subsequently be presented: training workshop leaders, scientific choices and educational and philosophical choices. Following these observations, the need to change current practice surrounding science workshops will be elaborated on. Consequently, a circular structure between the scientific community and civil society supervised by the science educator will be proposed. This structure will enable mutual understanding and enrichment involving not only civil society but also the scientific community through the science educator. To do this, the beginnings of a solution are proposed based upon a digital platform, which could be envisaged at a French level or an international level.

Keywords:

• Public archaeology
• science outreach activities
• leisure and cultural activities
• theory in archaeology
• education

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Carol Osborne for translating this article, as well as Chris Esnault and Marc Rocheman for the necessary proofreading to ensure a good translation.

ORCID

Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2515-6450

Notes

1 Within ArkéoTopia, we follow the Théorie de la Médiation applied to archaeology which defines archaeology as the scientific discipline which studies artefacts made by human beings (Bruneau and Balut 1997). So an archaeological study is about technology, not about text.

2 Circular no. 2010-083 dated 8 June 2010 concerning support for science and technology subjects at primary school, and decree no. 2013-77 dated 24 January 2013 about timetable organization in nursery and primary schools, in particular Article D. 521-13.

3 Educational and innovative actions with a scientific and technical dimension and scientific and technical workshops, circular no. 2001-046 dated 21 March 2001 and artistic and cultural class projects, circular no. 2001-104 dated 14 June 2001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond

Jean-Olivier Gransard-Desmond is an independent archaeologist, president of the non-profit organization ArkéoTopia, an alternative approach to archaeology. After studying Egyptology at the Sorbonne, Paris, and Middle-Eastern archaeology at L’École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, he finished his PhD in archaeology in 2006. He specializes in human-animal relationships, and is also interested in epistemology and computer science applied to archaeology. He has worked in the field in France, Tunisia and Syria, covering periods ranging from prehistory to the contemporary period. As a co-founder of ArkéoTopia, an alternative approach to archaeology, in 2007, he is also very active in the field of science workshops, education and the defence of archaeological research (‘Can we really differentiate between treasure hunters and non-professional archaeologists?’, IA 33, 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.33.2). He has been behind numerous science workshops in archaeology and has worked for local authorities as well as for associations. He is the author of Étude sur les Canidæ des temps pré-pharaoniques en Égypte et au Soudan [Study of canidae in pre-pharaonic Egypt and Sudan] (Archaeopress, 2004).