Science communication across cultures: design and delivery of a graduate science communication program in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over two years, a graduate diploma program in science communication was designed and delivered by a university in the Republic of South Africa with assistance from a university in Australia. Building on the Australian program, the design incorporated cross-cultural and Indigenous Knowledge elements in keeping with the ethos of the South African university and broader inclusive movements within science communication. The overall design corresponded to many essential learning objectives later identified by Lewenstein and Baram-Tsabari (2022, How should we organize science communication trainings to achieve competencies? International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 12(4), 289–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2022.2136985), but there were also many modifications that had to be made over the course of the design and delivery to accommodate cultural considerations. In this paper, we consider how closely the design matched the threshold concepts and the learning objectives suggested by Lewenstein and Baram-Tsabari, and what modifications might be made to them to include cultural considerations.