Open Letter to
Dr. Suzanne Fortier, President
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Can We Afford Not to Fund Science Education in Canada?

Marina Milner-Bolotin
Department of Physics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
December 3, 2007)

Dear Madame President,

I am an Assistant Professor of Physics at Ryerson University, a theoretical physicist, and a physics educator by training. My area of research is physics education. I study how students learn physics and how physics instructors can do a better job of teaching physics, not only to physics majors, but to every student in our classes. Physics education is a very exciting and important field of study, especially today, when many of the students taking introductory physics courses are not specifically interested in physics, but are only taking it because it is a prerequisite or requirement for other courses or programmes.

The field of science education is instrumental in the success of any nation, especially a nation which prides itself in its technological achievements. Based on the statement of vision published on the NSERC web site, I understand that the organization you represent has a vision of "making Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians". I presume that this vision implies having high quality science education for all Canadians. However, science education in general, and physics education specifically does not officially exist in Canada as a scientific discipline. At least it does not exist in the eyes of the Canadian government, which will not fund it through federal granting agencies like NSERC. This is troubling, since the refusal to support science education research by NSERC has significant negative ramifications for science faculty, teachers, and kindergarten to university students. This is especially troubling, given that faculty whose field of research is science education, and who are scientists by training cannot compete for NSERC funds as their science colleagues pursuing more traditional science research. As a result, science faculty pursuing research in science education receive very limited support in designing and implementing innovative curricula, laboratories and modern instructional methods. The unavailability of NSERC funding for our research is a setback for our ability to advance high quality science education in Canada.

A year ago, the University of British Columbia was able to attract Physics Nobel Laureate, Professor Carl Weiman, by offering him 12 million dollars to start a Carl Wieman Physics Education Initiative (http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/departments/index.html). This initiative opened a new era in Canadian Science Education, showing that a major Canadian Research University realizes that in order to improve the quality of science teaching, one has to recognize the field of science education research and to invest financial resources in it. Moreover, it also comes with the acknowledgement that science research expertise does not necessarily mean that a professor is going to be effective in his/her teaching. However, this initiative was aimed mainly at the University of British Columbia and has not yet had a significant effect on the funding of science education initiatives at other Canadian universities.

Science education, as a research field, needs to have continuing granting support from NSERC, as the main goal of our research is to improve the state of science education in Canada using our science backgrounds, our knowledge of how people learn science, and of how science should be taught. I strongly believe that we must recognize the crucial difference between the responsibilities of administering educational Institutions, which is a provincial responsibility, and the field of science education research, which is a field of research that is of national (and international) scope: we are scientists who have scientific expertise and whose goal is to scientifically pursue science education as a field of research.

I also strongly believe that the present practice of limiting science education funding to SSHRC puts fundamental limitations on what fields of research we can pursue. Science education does not belong to the social sciences or humanities. Only part of the science education research fits SSHRC's mandate. If a researcher is interested in investigating how students understand particular science topics or how science instruction can be improved, then SSHRC will not be an appropriate funding agency for this kind of research. The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) has recognized this problem and recently sent a letter to the presidents of NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR suggesting a way to improve the evaluation of research in the field of Science education. The letter is posted at https://www.cap.ca/news/briefs/SSHRC.pdf

Based on the level of public interest in the field, which translates into the large number of popular science books and science-related interviews in the media, we all can see that more and more Canadians now recognize the importance of what we are doing, even though it is still done without the support of NSERC, or too often without any support at all from our government.

When will NSERC recognize that science education has a legitimate place among other scientific pursuits and that its impact is crucial, not only at the college or university level, but also for achieving adequate levels of scientific literacy among the Canadian public? By comparison, in the United States, the National Science Foundation and other major agencies fully support all aspects of work aimed at improving science education in that country.

Today we have a wonderful opportunity to start supporting Canadian science education research and efforts to improve it. We have a physics Nobel Laureate on board who not only started a world-class science education initiative at UBC, but also showed that investing in science education (which he did with his Nobel Prize money) can bring the excitement of science to millions of people all over the world [1]. Today we have a large number of scientists in Canada who are interested in science education and are ready to contribute to the field. These people want to stay in Canada, rather than pursue their research elsewhere, but in order to pursue research in the field of their choice they need to be recognized and supported. Today, the fields of science, mathematics, technology, and engineering education are booming all over the world. The overwhelming success of science educators in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas shows that investing in science education pays off. We have an historic opportunity to bring Canadian science education to the world level by supporting it with NSERC grants and showing university administrators that science education, and faculty involved in it, are valued and should be supported within colleges and universities.

I strongly believe that it is now the right time to act, as it is not yet too late. As a society, we simply cannot afford not to fund science education research any more.

Sincerely,
Marina Milner-Bolotin

1. K. Perkins, W. Adams, M. Dubson,N. Finkelstein, S. Reid, C. Wieman, and R. LeMaster,The Physics Teacher, 44, 18 (2006).