Research Comms Podcast: What relationship do the UK’s young people have with science and scientists? And how can we increase their engagement with STEM?
‘The science curriculum can feel very abstract, and that's a shame because in the research sector science is working on questions of the unknown, tackling the problems that are facing us right now as a society.’ Katherine Mathieson, on the need to engage young people with science.
In March 2022 the British Science Association published a report examining the attitudes of young people in the UK to science. In this episode of the Research Comms podcast, the BSA’s outgoing Chief Executive, Katherine Mathieson, talks about the report’s findings, speculating on why young people do not feel sufficiently engaged with science, the impact of the Covid pandemic on their appetite for science, and why now is a golden opportunity for us to rework young people’s relationship with science.
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The following excerpt from the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Why did the British Academy commission the survey and what did you discover about young people’s attitudes to science?
We are really curious about lots of things to do with science engagement, but particularly about trust and how people regard the levels of trust in scientists. There's quite a lot of data about the extent to which scientists are generally seen as very trustworthy. People report high levels of trust and that's quite a long standing start and it blips up and down a bit depending on exactly who you ask and how you ask it. But we wanted to see how often those polls look at population levels as a whole, looking at how young people answer questions about their relationship with science, their trust in science.
So we did some polling in mid-February of two thousand adults and one thousand 14 to 18 year olds, and we looked at how trustworthy people said the scientists were. So for example, overall, 47% of people said that they trusted scientists. We asked people, ‘Do scientists represent your views and your values?’ You wouldn't necessarily expect everyone to agree with that. People often say, “I think scientists have slightly different views and values”. One of the things that was most interesting was that 22% of adults agreed with that statement, but only 12% of the young people did. So it suggests that there's a bigger problem coming down the track than we might have previously been aware of.
On views about relatability and approachability, we asked, ‘Do you think scientists are relatable and approachable?’ 25% of adults said yes. Only 16% of young people. So this gap that many of us in science engagement and research communication are aware of - between how scientists are perceived by the public - the gap is somehow bigger or more dramatic when you're looking at a group of teenagers. So I think there's some interesting measures for us to take forward on that.
We also asked people, ‘Do you want to hear more from science and scientists?’ Over a third of people said ‘yes’. That's in the context of hearing a lot about science and from a lot of scientists over the last couple of years. Was there a disparity there between adults and young people as well? Not much, actually. So, 38% of adults and 37% of young people said yes. So the appetite is there.
Have you listened to these other episodes of the Research Comms podcast?
How relevant did young people perceive science to be?
Scientists are not seen as talking directly to young people. One of the questions we asked was, ‘Do you think when the scientists go out to engage the public, they talking directly to you?’ Nearly a quarter of the adults said yes, but only 15% of the teenagers. There's a real opportunity here for us to think differently about how we engage this particular age group.
I think it shows that what they're getting at school is somehow not quite hitting the mark for them. I think what the young people that we talk to often say is that it just doesn't seem very relevant.
The stuff you get in the science curriculum can feel very abstract and that's a great shame, because in the research sector science is working on questions of the unknown, tackling the problems that are facing us right now as a society.
What kind of opportunities are there for scientists to engage young people through digital media?
Well, academic researchers and industrial research is so used to professional modes of communication that they forget about talking to their local community organisations. We're all members of local communities, of families, of different groupings of people and there's more we could do to bring our science personas to life in those settings.
Every researcher will find a different route, Are you interested in the buzz of a live audience? Would you rather work over a long period of time with a small number of people? Would you become a member of a community organisation and let them take the lead on what they want to do as part of the partnership? Do you want to go on TV or do you want to do something different?
Most researchers aren't going to have the resource to put into curating content regularly for an existing audience. They're going to be more interested in working with people who already have an audience. I think there's a lot of demand for that, among content creators, for expertise of all kinds, not just science, but all disciplines.
You identify what you refer to as a golden opportunity as a result of the findings - why do you say that, when the survey results don’t paint a very rosy picture?
I think it really is a golden opportunity for two reasons.
One is there is evidence of unmet demand. We're seeing people, both teenagers and the adults in this particular study saying they want to hear more from scientists. It may not be straightforward to uncover where that demand happens or where the audience is. When do they want to hear more from scientists? What do they want to hear about? Those questions need more attention but the demand is definitely there.
The other aspect is to do with the wider policy context, with the UK government’s ambitions for being a ‘science superpower’, for levelling up and redistributing resources more fairly across the UK. There’s a real commitment on the part of institutions and organisations to diversify and to make science more diverse and inclusive. And I think all of those policy trends are coming at the same time as this increased public awareness and demand. And that's where I think research engagement can really step up and say, “Actually, we do know some stuff about how to do this well.”
During the pandemic, there was very much a focus on public health style communication, and that is absolutely what was needed - very clear instructions about what was happening and what they needed to do, what changes they need to make. But as we leave behind that kind of era, I hope, I think we need a much broader sweep of research communication. We need approaches that are more responsive to what communities would like to see, that are about sharing the power, about long term relationship building between researchers and communities. I think there's a huge amount of opportunity. And I'm excited about the future for the sector
Research Comms is presented by Peter Barker, director of Orinoco Communications, a digital communications and content creation agency that specialises in helping to communicate research. Find out how we’ve helped research organisations like yours by taking a look at past projects…
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Click here to see more information about the British Science Association’s report
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