What do we mean by science education for civic engagement?

One of the most frequently cited goals for science education over the years has been to provide students with the understanding and skills necessary to engage in science‐related civic issues. Despite the repeated insistence on the importance of this kind of democratic participation, there has been little effort in the research community either to define just what science‐related civic engagement entails or to ask whether the research or practices in the field are suited to accomplishing this goal. In this paper we take a step toward this end by offering a precise definition of science‐related civic engagement drawing on work from the fields of philosophy and political theory. We argue that such engagement can be found in instances requiring both the use and production of scientific knowledge and examine the various avenues of that engagement. We then explore some implications such a definition might have for thinking about science education research and practice.