Science for All: Exploring Science Communication for Public Engagement

Universities in the United States and Ecuador must meet various policy guidelines concerning research and teaching that address the needs of their local communities. In Ecuador, the higher education law requires that universities undertake research and public outreach projects that respond to societal needs. In the United States, Carnegie Research Classifications motivate universities to serve their publics by carrying out community-engaged research. However, evaluations of public outreach projects and community-engaged research have consistently demonstrated that the segments of society that are ostensibly served by these initiatives are not meaningfully engaged in them; members of the public are treated as, and accordingly act as, merely research participants or recipients of free services, not as collaborators or contributors.At the same time, research conducted by science communication scholars, and about the practice of science communication, recommends that science communication scholarship not only should focus on disseminating scientific content to the public but also should explore how to develop sustainable relationships between academia and the broader society.