iSTAR First Light: Characterizing Astronomy Education Research Dissertations In The iSTAR Database

Abstract

There is widespread interest among discipline-based science education researchers toKeywords: Astronomy Education Research; Science Education Literature Review rogress in astronomy education research-heretofore referred to simply as AER-requires that we first understand the scope of what is known about teaching and learning astronomy content across diverse settings, and what is not. Unfortunately, AER is a broad scientific discipline in which the existing landscape is particularly difficult to comprehensively grasp. Unlike the field of traditional astronomy in which research is conducted nearly exclusively by individuals who hold the exclusive identities of "professional astronomers," AER is conducted by individuals representing a wide variety of academic settings and affiliations, including professional astronomers, astronomy education researchers, planetarium operators, cognitive scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, science educators, science education researchers, teacher educators, policy makers, museum educators, curriculum developers, outreach enthusiasts, and publishers (Slater, Slater, Heyer, & Bailey, 2015). These individuals most often present findings in research journals tightly related to their own professional fields, hindering knowledge transfer amongst communities of researchers and practitioners. Absent the ability to accurately describe the existing research landscape we often swirl in the vortex of our preconceptions, stymied in our efforts because we do not have a grasp on what we do and do not know, about the ways that humans currently and might possibly come to learn astronomical concepts.Isolation caused by disciplinary silos is magnified by other factors that drive AER toward domination by a few voices, from a few research settings, using a limited set of theoretical frameworks and methodologies. Works published as dissertations and thesis, in the pre-digital era, from lesser known journals coming from non-Western countries, or that are hidden behind paywalls are disadvantaged in their ability to influence the AER research agenda. Researchers from smaller institutions and from developing nations experience the greatest barriers to access these community resources

Astronomy Education Research: Impact and Future Directions

“…Concerning publications of theses dissertations, in the USA there are about 500 published (Slater et al, 2016). In Brazil, even if not high in the overall ranking of education, we had an increase of AE in the last few years because of the support of financial agencies for Science Education.…”

“…All works and publications need to be surveyed, and the papers made available. One recent effort by Slater et al (2016) with the iSTAR Database is underway, but extensive work to get the works of many countries of the world remains, with the local language being a primary factor to overcome.…”

A Glass Ceiling in AER?: A preliminary glimpse at the distribution of authors by gender in the iSTAR (istardb.org) database

“…To understand the complexity of the discussions, we must address one key definition "Astronomy Education Research" (AER), which is empirical and theoretical research into the teaching and learning of astronomy content across diverse settings. It is a discipline which traverses the boundaries of other traditional fields, for example: astronomy, educa-tion and psychology (Slater et al (2016). Therefore, the individuals who work in the field of AER, are from a myriad of settings academic, industry, NGO and community organisations, which covers astronomers all the way to policy makers and beyond (Bailey and Lombardi (2015); Slater et al (2015)).…”

“…The cumulative skills of these three individuals, allowed them to instigate what was to be called iSTAR (International STudies of Astronomy education Research) (Slater et al (2016)). A repository of AER in all its forms, from across the globe, thereby signifying that we live under a shared "sky", on a blue marble, whizzing around a middle-aged star, in a relatively "cool" galaxy.…”

international STudies of Astronomy Education Research Database (iSTAR)

“…Works are categorized by research method, nature of study-participants, educational learning venue studied, country and language of the study, and other fruitfully useful categories. The first domain of research artifacts ingested into the iSTAR database were doctoral dissertations (Slater et al, 2016). To the authors' great surprise, nearly 300 astronomy education research dissertations were found from the last 100-years.…”