Moral Motives & STEM-informed Action | Motivos morales y acción basada en STEM

The informal learning community often assumes that people choose to learn for one of two reasons: dispassionate interest in the subject, or some kind of drive for achievement or mastery. But this story is incomplete — what about motivations for learning that are connected to our desire to protect other people or support their wellbeing?

Between January and April 2022, we brought together theorists and science communicators from informal learning institutions (including news outlets). The goal was to have them talk directly to each other about what questions matter most for science communication: what answers moral theory might provide, and what practical insights might better inform theory. We also think it's important to point out that we shun binaries: many of our participants are both researchers (perhaps theorists) and practitioners, although we sometimes asked everyone to self-identify as primarily one or the other for break-out purposes.

The open-access proceedings from this conference are available in both English and Spanish. Thanks to Leticia Molinero Translation Studio for translating the proceedings into Spanish! Chapters include provocations for both informal STEM learning and moral psychology, dialogues between participants, and individual reflections, or you can download the entire volume.