Socioscientific Issues in Education: Voicing Canadian Perspectives

The above photo was taken by Latika Raisinghani in Regina on September 16, 2019, as she went for an evening walk.At that time, Latika did not imagine that experiencing nature's beauty through such walks would become a rare event only six months later.On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally declared Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic (Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020).Soon after, classes were suspended and then moved online indefinitely; people were advised to maintain social distancing and to work and study from home.Locked indoors for days, Latika remembers looking at the photo above and feeling that, despite we, as humans, were imprisoned within the boundaries of our homes, nature outside continued to thrive.The science around this novel respiratory disease also evolved as its cause was eventually identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, or SARS-CoV-2, but its implications went well beyond health.Economic, political, and social disparities between the Global South and the Global North became more obvious as the race to find a 'cure' intensified.Once vaccines were developed, access to them and the effort of educating people about the benefits of getting vaccinated became prominent issues.Six years later, with the severity of the pandemic having now subsided, many people still live with long COVID, and others still suffer the rare side effects of vaccines.The COVID-19 pandemic is just one example of a socioscientific issue.