Preaching to the scientifically converted: evaluating inclusivity in science festival audiences

ABSTRACT

Scientific institutions are increasingly embracing values of inclusivity and public engagement, but how do these two dimensions intersect? Science festivals have rapidly expanded in recent years as an outgrowth of these values, aiming to engage and educate the public about scientific topics and research. While resources invested in public engagement by scientists, universities, and governments are admirable in principle; this study indicates that their ambition to broaden the reach of science may be going unrealized in practice. Using data from three major UK science festivals, we demonstrate such events are disproportionately reaching economically privileged and educated audiences already invested in science, as opposed to diverse and broadly representative samples of the general public. Our results demonstrate that these science festivals are falling short of their aims to make science accessible to a broad audience. There is a clear need for improved practices and on-going evaluation to ensure science festivals include those who are not already scientifically converted.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation study
• informal education
• museum studies
• science festival
• science communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Eric B. Kennedy http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0056-1521

Notes

1 Online ticketing systems are often used even for free events to avoid overcrowding at any one activity within the science festival.

2 At the northern festival, this question was asked as a five-point agreement scale to the statement I attend science events or activities (outside of the Science Festival). In the east, this question was asked as a seven-point agreement scale for the statement ‘I attend a lot of science events or activities.’ 48% agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, and a further 17% neither agreed nor disagreed.

3 In the east and south, this question was asked as a seven-point agreement scale to the statement I am interested in science.

4 The Sutton Trust: The Postgraduate Premium Revisiting Trends in Social Mobility and Educational Inequalities in Britain and America 2013, Available at http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/the-postgraduate-premium

5 According to the Office of National Statistics (2014), the UK rate of unemployment varied from 6% to 6.8% over the course of 2014.