Why science education and for whom? The contributions of science capital and Bildung

ABSTRACT

Science capital has proved a valuable concept for understanding a person's science-related resources and the inequities linked to participation in science education. The concept was developed in the UK and has since been applied worldwide. In this paper, we investigate the potential of the concept in Denmark. Here science capital meets a concept that is pivotal to the educational tradition: Bildung. We explore these two concepts, illuminate their blind spots, and point to potentials of how they may improve on each other. Our key argument is, that while science capital reveals inequities within participation in science education, the argument for why participation is important is often linked to aspirations, or ‘to become part of science'. Bildung, however enables a focus on the ‘why’ of science participation by adding how engagement with science affects the understanding of who we are and of our relationship with the world. Bildung further helps us reflect on how we may address key problems facing our societies. Based on the concept of science capital we critically reflect on issues of inequities in Bildung, and of who has access to Bildung. In conclusion, we argue for a convergence of these two concepts when understanding science participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Science capital
• Bildung
• science education
• equity

Acknowledgment

This paper is based on the Danish national SCOPE-project. The project is a ten-year longituninal study of children and young people's science capital, Buildung and Science identites over time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

SCOPE is funded by the supported by Novo Nordisk Foundation: [Grant Number NNF19SA0059041]; Villum Fonden: [Grant Number NNF19SA0059041].