Abstract

QUADROS, Claudia Irene; RIBEIRO, Regiane Regina; KOHLS, Chirlei Diana  and  MELO, Patricia Goedert. Participation, Citizenship, and Science: The Ask the Scientists Experience at the School Agency of the Federal University of Paraná. RLEC/LJCS [online]. 2022, vol.9, n.2, pp.81-98.  Epub May 01, 2023. ISSN 2184-0458.  https://doi.org/10.21814/rlec.3973.

Public scientific communication in universities aims to encourage dialogue between scientists and society. By involving citizens in debates about its teaching, research, and extension actions, the university facilitates the exchange of knowledge with the community. In this paper, we discuss how this relationship is established through the project Pergunte aos Cientistas (Ask the Scientists), in which the population could clarify doubts about COVID-19 with researchers from different fields of knowledge. We, the authors of this article, are part of the Agência Escola (School Agency), an initiative for public communication and scientific dissemination of the Federal University of Paraná, the oldest educational institution in Brazil. Through descriptive analysis, we identify the public participating in this project and reflect on the relationships between society and scientists. To do so, we employ the concepts of open science (Recomendação da UNESCO Sobre Ciência Aberta, 2021), scientific dissemination (Caldas, 2010; Granado & Malheiro, 2015), and public communication of science (Bucchi, 2008; Manso, 2015). The studies on public formation (Dewey, 1946; Henriques, 2018) were essential to understanding how the participation of the publics in Pergunte aos Cientistas develops. The initiative has demonstrated the importance of citizens being active and aware of their surroundings. The exchange between scientists and society is beneficial for both parties: the former can map the population’s doubts and needs, enabling the development of research based on social demands, while the latter discovers that it also has a space to show and expand its knowledge along with an academic community that has its doors open to society.

Keywords : science popularization; open science; public.

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