Ana Maria Navas Iannini | Simon Fraser University (original) (raw)
Books by Ana Maria Navas Iannini
Controversy in Science Museums focuses on exhibitions that approach sensitive or controversial to... more Controversy in Science Museums focuses on exhibitions that approach sensitive or controversial topics. With a keen sense of past and current practices, Pedretti and Navas Iannini examine and reimagine how museums and science centres can create exhibitions that embrace criticality and visitor agency.
Drawing on international case studies and voices from visitors and museum professionals, as well as theoretical insights about scientific literacy and science communication, the authors explore the textured notion of controversy and the challenges and opportunities practitioners may encounter as they plan for, and develop, controversial science exhibitions. They assert that science museums can no longer serve as mere repositories for objects or sites for transmitting facts, but that they should instead become spaces for conversations that are inclusive, critical, and socially-responsible.
Controversy in Science Museums provides an invaluable resource for museum professionals who are interested in creating and hosting controversial exhibitions, and for scholars and students working in the fields of museum studies, science communication, and social studies of science. Anyone wishing to engage in an examination and critique of the changing roles of science museums will find this book relevant, timely and thought-provoking.
![Research paper thumbnail of Controvérsias em Museus de Ciências: Reflexões e Propostas para Educadores [Controversies in science museums: Reflections and ideas for museum educators] (Portuguese)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/62217740/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](O livro é mais um convite a educadores para assumirem e compartilharem conosco um olhar reflexivo... more O livro é mais um convite a educadores para assumirem e compartilharem conosco um olhar reflexivo, crítico e comprometido com uma perspectiva de ciência que rompe com visões dogmáticas, a-históricas e neutras, e assume a ciência como um empreendimento humano, posicionado, ideológico, político e, por isso, uma construção social. É um convite para parar – e reparar!
a democratização do acesso a bens e espaços culturais tem sido cada vez mais discutida no cenário... more a democratização do acesso a bens e espaços culturais tem sido cada vez mais discutida no cenário atual brasileiro. Estamos progredindo com relação a diversos aspectos de desenvolvimento social e o acesso à cultura precisa acompanhar este movimento. E é este, justamente, um dos principais objetivos do projeto "Que público é esse? Formação de públicos de museus e centros culturais", que disponibiliza a educadores conhecimento para exercerem com mais propriedade o papel de mediadores culturais. Quando devidamente preparados, os profissionais da educação são aliados fundamentais para qualificar e facilitar o contato do público com conteúdos que, muitas vezes, se valem de códigos e linguagens sofisticados e específicos.
Book chapters by Ana Maria Navas Iannini
Critical Voices in Science Education Research Narratives of Hope and Struggle, 2019
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Formal and Informal Science Learning Opportunities, 2018
Papers by Ana Maria Navas Iannini
Museu: lugar do público., 2009
Proceedings of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting
Journal of Science Communication
This paper examines how a particular subset of informal science education settings — science exhi... more This paper examines how a particular subset of informal science education settings — science exhibitions — embraces contemporary socioscientific issues (SSI) and fosters public engagement with them. A qualitative cross-case analysis of two SSI exhibitions about teen pregnancy (Brazil) and sustainability (Canada) was conducted. It revealed complex issues around operational funding, and institutional tensions related to the nature, balance, and relevance of the topics displayed. The analysis unravelled opportunities for SSI exhibits to engage with contextualized and situated knowledge; articulate the deficit model with other models of science communication; and consider visitors as agents of change.
Proceedings of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting
Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting
Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting
Critical Voices in Science Education Research, 2019
In this chapter, I use the currere process of reflexive inquiry (PinarWF, AnnMeetAmEducResAssoc2:... more In this chapter, I use the currere process of reflexive inquiry (PinarWF, AnnMeetAmEducResAssoc2:19–27, 1975), as a personal experience method (Grumet MR, JTeachEduc40:13–17, 1989) to map my intellectual interests about science museums and make meaning of them. Moving through the four moments of inquiry that Pinar describes − regressive, progressive, analytical, and synthetic −, I start with a turn to my autobiographical past, looking closely at undergraduate, graduate and professional experiences that first opened a space for me to combine science and education, and then, to approach (and question) the work of science museums. Places, people, feeling and emotions emerged as part of this reconstruction. In taking distance of the past, I move within the other moments of inquiry. I look at the positions that ground my current doctoral research with museum exhibits that disrupt dominant cultural narratives and prevailing models of science communication. As part of this process, I reflect on the ways I have strengthened and refined my epistemological beliefs and my understandings about the challenges and possibilities to envision (and to advocate for) science museums as places for promoting social change. While identifying relations between intellectual interests and biographical movement, I explore potential angles for future research and, also, possibilities for combining theory and practice.
Controversy in Science Museums, 2020
Controversy in Science Museums, 2020
International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 2022
Controversy in Science Museums focuses on exhibitions that approach sensitive or controversial to... more Controversy in Science Museums focuses on exhibitions that approach sensitive or controversial topics. With a keen sense of past and current practices, Pedretti and Navas Iannini examine and reimagine how museums and science centres can create exhibitions that embrace criticality and visitor agency.
Drawing on international case studies and voices from visitors and museum professionals, as well as theoretical insights about scientific literacy and science communication, the authors explore the textured notion of controversy and the challenges and opportunities practitioners may encounter as they plan for, and develop, controversial science exhibitions. They assert that science museums can no longer serve as mere repositories for objects or sites for transmitting facts, but that they should instead become spaces for conversations that are inclusive, critical, and socially-responsible.
Controversy in Science Museums provides an invaluable resource for museum professionals who are interested in creating and hosting controversial exhibitions, and for scholars and students working in the fields of museum studies, science communication, and social studies of science. Anyone wishing to engage in an examination and critique of the changing roles of science museums will find this book relevant, timely and thought-provoking.
O livro é mais um convite a educadores para assumirem e compartilharem conosco um olhar reflexivo... more O livro é mais um convite a educadores para assumirem e compartilharem conosco um olhar reflexivo, crítico e comprometido com uma perspectiva de ciência que rompe com visões dogmáticas, a-históricas e neutras, e assume a ciência como um empreendimento humano, posicionado, ideológico, político e, por isso, uma construção social. É um convite para parar – e reparar!
a democratização do acesso a bens e espaços culturais tem sido cada vez mais discutida no cenário... more a democratização do acesso a bens e espaços culturais tem sido cada vez mais discutida no cenário atual brasileiro. Estamos progredindo com relação a diversos aspectos de desenvolvimento social e o acesso à cultura precisa acompanhar este movimento. E é este, justamente, um dos principais objetivos do projeto "Que público é esse? Formação de públicos de museus e centros culturais", que disponibiliza a educadores conhecimento para exercerem com mais propriedade o papel de mediadores culturais. Quando devidamente preparados, os profissionais da educação são aliados fundamentais para qualificar e facilitar o contato do público com conteúdos que, muitas vezes, se valem de códigos e linguagens sofisticados e específicos.
Critical Voices in Science Education Research Narratives of Hope and Struggle, 2019
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Formal and Informal Science Learning Opportunities, 2018
Museu: lugar do público., 2009
Proceedings of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting
Journal of Science Communication
This paper examines how a particular subset of informal science education settings — science exhi... more This paper examines how a particular subset of informal science education settings — science exhibitions — embraces contemporary socioscientific issues (SSI) and fosters public engagement with them. A qualitative cross-case analysis of two SSI exhibitions about teen pregnancy (Brazil) and sustainability (Canada) was conducted. It revealed complex issues around operational funding, and institutional tensions related to the nature, balance, and relevance of the topics displayed. The analysis unravelled opportunities for SSI exhibits to engage with contextualized and situated knowledge; articulate the deficit model with other models of science communication; and consider visitors as agents of change.
Proceedings of the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting
Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting
Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting
Critical Voices in Science Education Research, 2019
In this chapter, I use the currere process of reflexive inquiry (PinarWF, AnnMeetAmEducResAssoc2:... more In this chapter, I use the currere process of reflexive inquiry (PinarWF, AnnMeetAmEducResAssoc2:19–27, 1975), as a personal experience method (Grumet MR, JTeachEduc40:13–17, 1989) to map my intellectual interests about science museums and make meaning of them. Moving through the four moments of inquiry that Pinar describes − regressive, progressive, analytical, and synthetic −, I start with a turn to my autobiographical past, looking closely at undergraduate, graduate and professional experiences that first opened a space for me to combine science and education, and then, to approach (and question) the work of science museums. Places, people, feeling and emotions emerged as part of this reconstruction. In taking distance of the past, I move within the other moments of inquiry. I look at the positions that ground my current doctoral research with museum exhibits that disrupt dominant cultural narratives and prevailing models of science communication. As part of this process, I reflect on the ways I have strengthened and refined my epistemological beliefs and my understandings about the challenges and possibilities to envision (and to advocate for) science museums as places for promoting social change. While identifying relations between intellectual interests and biographical movement, I explore potential angles for future research and, also, possibilities for combining theory and practice.
Controversy in Science Museums, 2020
Controversy in Science Museums, 2020
International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 2022
Controversy in Science Museums, 2020
Drawing from past and ongoing research projects, this study explores visitor engagement through t... more Drawing from past and ongoing research projects, this study explores visitor engagement through the lenses of controversial science exhibitions and science communication models. Through a cross-case analysis of four case studies, we sought to deconstruct and understand how visitors engage with science exhibits involving complex and controversial topics. Qualitative data sources across the sites include visitor interviews, visitor observations, artefacts, images, comment cards, and field notes. Six themes emerged from our analysis: acquiring and recalling knowledge, personalization and introspection, voice and narrative, listening and talking, dissonance and tensions, and seeds of change.
Revista Ciencias (UNAM), 2009
Palabras clave: popularización, ciencia y tecnología, Brasil.
In this paper we explore how science, technology, society and environment (STSE) perspectives are... more In this paper we explore how science, technology, society and environment (STSE) perspectives are embedded in a museum exhibit, and how visitors engage with this experience. We present preliminary findings related to Our World: BMO Sustainability Gallery, an exhibit focusing on water access/conservation, food waste, energy consumption and sustainability. Data collected from observations and interviews with visitors, field notes, collection of visitors' written comments and interviews with the museum staff suggest that, in this exhibit, visitors engage with STSE perspectives by: (1) building awareness and acquiring credible evidence-based information (settled knowledge); (2) exploring the complexities in which STSE issues are embedded; and (3) acknowledging personal sense, feelings and the potential for agency (unsettled knowledge). Our findings led us to generate a heuristic about the visitor experience in relation to STSE perspectives, and to consider scientific literacy within the changing landscape of museum exhibitions.
This study aims to examine dimensions of public engagement with museum exhibits that approach cri... more This study aims to examine dimensions of public engagement with museum exhibits that approach critical and complex socioscientific. Particularly, we focus on the patterns of science communication established between the exhibits and the visitors. Using a multiple case study methodology, we present preliminary findings from two exhibits, Alerts and Preventing Youth Pregnancy, displayed by the Catavento museum (São Paulo, Brazil); those exhibits are part of a larger funded project on critical exhibitions. Data collection included observation of visitors while interacting with the exhibits, interviews with all the visitors we observed, field notes and documents/artefacts. Our findings suggest that the patterns of communication prompted by the exhibits reflect dimensions of deficit, dialogue, participation and action and possibilities of articulation between them.
Recently, informal educational settings such as museums and science centres have witnessed increa... more Recently, informal educational settings such as museums and science centres have witnessed increased attention to current issues in science and technology (S&T). In an effort to explore ways to enhance visitors' involvement and engagement, some institutions have attempted to develop contemporary installations with all the social and political trappings of the day, moving from pedagogical and experiential exhibitions to critical exhibits . In this paper, we refer to a larger research project that focuses on a series of individual case studies of critical exhibitions housed at institutions across Canada. The results and discussion we present here focus on one case related to the travelling exhibit Body Worlds and the Story of the Heart, and represents only one of a series of exhibitions to be explored. In this case, semi-structured interviews with museum staff and visitors, observation of visitors' interaction with the exhibit and collection of relevant documents were used to build up a portrait of the nature and impact of the case. Relevant findings highlight emergent categories related to the meaning the visitors ascribe to their interactions with the exhibit and the tensions experiences by them.
