From scientific literacy to civic capacity: school science education as civic infrastructure

Abstract

School science education has long been expected to prepare scientifically informed citizens, yet classroom practice and assessment often remain centered on conceptual understanding rather than on students’ capacity to use scientific knowledge in public life. This perspective article argues that scientific literacy remains essential but is insufficient unless connected to epistemic judgment, public reasoning, participatory knowledge production, and science-informed civic action. We propose the framework of socio-scientific civic capacity as an operational bridge between scientific literacy, socioscientific reasoning, citizen science participation, and responsible scientific citizenship. Socio-scientific civic capacity refers to students’ individual and collective ability to evaluate evidence and sources, reason under uncertainty, deliberate on socio-scientific controversies, participate in knowledge production, and connect scientific understanding with responsible responses to shared public problems, including climate change, public health, genetic technologies, artificial intelligence, energy, and biodiversity loss. We further argue that school science education should be understood as civic infrastructure: the curricular, pedagogical, and institutional arrangements that enable schools to connect science learning with community problems, citizen-generated knowledge, democratic deliberation, and collective action. The article discusses implications for curriculum, teacher education, citizen science programs, equity, assessment, and science education research.