A Review of Rola Khishfe’s (2025) The Complexities of Socioscientific Issues in Education: Research-Based Insights and Practical Strategies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2026.v31i3.1119Abstract
This review examines Rola Khishfe’s The Complexities of Socioscientific Issues in Education: Research-Based Insights and Practical Strategies through the question of how socioscientific issues (SSI) education positions knowers and knowledge. The book offers an accessible and practically valuable collection of scenarios that support argumentation, nature of science understandings, and informed decision-making across diverse scientific and social contexts. Its geographical grounding and disciplinary organization are important strengths, while its recurring framing of expertise and limited engagement with local and Indigenous knowledges also open epistemological questions about whose knowledges enter SSI deliberation. This review argues that meaningful SSI education requires one not only to evaluate evidence and competing arguments but also to examine how disciplinary boundaries, expertise, lived experience, and power shape whose knowledge enters the discussion. Khishfe’s book provides a substantial foundation for this work while inviting SSI pedagogy to move further towards a pluralistic examination of knowledge, authority, place, and scientific citizenship in contemporary science education.
Keywords: socioscientific issues, scientific literacy, expertise, disciplinary boundaries
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Copyright (c) 2026 Puvithira Balasubramaniam
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