In one of my job interviews, I joked that the concept of science capital was 'haunting my dreams' - but I do think there's an element of truth in that. While it hasn't (yet) appeared as an anthropomorphised concept covered in a sheet shouting 'boo', it is something which really resonated with my understanding and motivations to work in science communication and education. When I began to look at potential topics for my research project, science capital felt like a natural step.
While there are many resources explaining science capital and academic articles explaining its foundations in research (try this from STEM Learning to begin with!), the concept builds on Bourdieu's Cultural Capital and is a way to represent the vast and varied amounts of knowledge individuals have around science, and bring to learning activities. It's also a way for us as science communicators to consider the expectations that we have for learners when we're designing lessons and activities - and how that might be contributing to the disparities we see in the people pursuing and succeeding in science.
Working with my amazing supervisor Harriet, we came up with a research project where I conducted qualitative interviews with professionals working in and around formal and informal science education. In these interviews, I was able to explore how these professionals understood and used the concept of science capital - and in this way, reflect on how the concept has evolved as it moves away from a purely academic concept into an approach to science education as a whole.
After receiving a distinction in my MSc degree and very positive feedback on this project, I'm excited to adapt it for publication, and share the results to help both academics to improve the reach of the concept, and practitioners to use the concept in the best way. In fact, I've had my abstract accepted to a conference panel on Social Justice in Science Communication at EASST-4S this summer! I'll keep this page updated as I work towards publication, but if you are interested to learn more about this research, please let me know!