Edited by:
Jing Lin, PhD, Beijing Normal University, China
Troy D. Sadler, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
Rebecca R. Lesnefsky, PhD, State University of New York at Cortland, United States
Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 1 October 2025
The Journal of Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER) announces a special issue related to socio-scientific issues (SSI) in science education. SSI are complex societal challenges with conceptual, procedural, and/or methodological connections to science. Issues such as climate change, viral pandemics, food insecurity, and new applications of biotechnology for healthcare represent some of the many SSI that can be positioned as issues-based opportunities for teaching and learning. The purpose of this special issue is to bring together cutting-edge research and theory focused on the latest developments and insights for SSI education.
Image credits: © yacobchuk / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Guest Editors
Jing Lin, PhD, Beijing Normal University, China
Troy Sadler, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
Troy Sadler is a professor of science education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education and serves at the Thomas James Distinguished Professor of Experiential Learning. Sadler’s research focuses on how students negotiate complex socio-scientific issues and how these issues may be used as contexts for science learning. He is interested in how issues-based learning experiences can support student learning of science and development of practices essential for full participation in modern societies. He is former Co-Editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, one of the world’s leading journals for science education research.
Rebecca Lesnefsky, PhD, State University of New York at Cortland, United States
About the Collection
The Journal of Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER) announces a special issue related to socio-scientific issues (SSI) in science education. SSI are complex societal challenges with conceptual, procedural, and/or methodological connections to science. Issues such as climate change, viral pandemics, food insecurity, and new applications of biotechnology for healthcare represent some of the many SSI that can be positioned as issues-based opportunities for teaching and learning. Whereas science educators have likely leveraged SSI in some form for many decades, the SSI research movement can be traced back 25 years to the beginning of the twenty first century (Zeidler, Walker, Ackett & Simmons, 2002). Since this time, the field has advanced significantly in multiple directions. For example, researchers have explored learning associated with SSI teaching, discourse and argumentation about complex issues, teacher perspectives and practices, SSI curriculum development processes, and assessment approaches that align with SSI. This work has led to the generation of research-informed frameworks for conceptualizing SSI in education and using SSI to teach science.
The purpose of this special issue is to bring together cutting-edge research and theory focused on the latest developments and insights for SSI education. As a part of this effort, we encourage submission of empirical studies, critical syntheses of research, and research-informed theory or frameworks. Within these broad categories, we are interested in receiving original research that employs a wide range of inquiry approaches including (but not limited to) quantitative analyses, case studies, policy analyses, design studies, and so forth. Analyses of existing research in the form of systematic literature review, meta-analyses, bibliometric analyses, and targeted scoping reviews are also encouraged. Research on any topics directly related to SSI for science education will be considered.
Topics that are particularly relevant for the modern SSI research community include (but are not limited to) the following:
Strategies for navigating barriers to the uptake and spread of SSI education.
The interaction of SSI and the modern information environment.
Learner engagement in science practices such as modeling and argumentation for the negotiation of SSI.
Leveraging artificial intelligence for enhancing SSI education.
Design, development, and testing of innovative SSI curriculum.
Facilitating interdisciplinary learning demanded by complex SSI within science education settings.
SSI teaching and learning within informal science education spaces.
Fostering productive discourse about controversial issues.
Educator ideas about and capacities for SSI teaching.
Novel approaches for assessing student learning in the context of SSI.
Ways in which artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies can be leveraged for SSI teaching and learning.
Using SSI for justice-centered teaching.
Scholars interested in the special issue should submit a five-page proposal (single-spaced, including references, author affiliation, and contact information) by October 1, 2025. The guest editors, Dr. Jing Lin, from Beijing Normal University, Dr. Troy D. Sadler, from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Dr. Rebecca R. Lesnefsky, from State University of New York at Cortland, will review proposals. The editorial team for the special issue will select up to 10 proposals to develop into full papers.
Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by October 15, 2025. The publication timeline is found in the Submission Guidelines.
Reference
Zeidler, D. L., Walker, K. A., Ackett, W. A., & Simmons, M. L. (2002). Tangled up in views: Beliefs in the nature of science and responses to socioscientific dilemmas. Science Education, 86, 343-367. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10025
Submission Guidelines
Publication Timelines:
June 1, 2025: Call for special issue papers is released
October 1, 2025: Deadline for proposal submission
October 15, 2025: Invitations for full manuscript submissions
January 1, 2026: Deadline for full manuscript submissions
March 1, 2026: Initial manuscript decisions
June 1, 2026: Deadline for submission of revised manuscripts
August 1, 2026: Second round of manuscript decisions
September 1, 2026: Deadline for submission of final manuscripts
November 1, 2026: Publication of the special issue
Submission Guidelines:
Proposals should be submitted to bnukxts@126.com and accompanied by a cover letter indicating that the manuscript is a “Special Issue” submission. Authors must follow DISER manuscript guidelines to prepare and submit full papers to the DISER journal website.
Any questions about appropriate topics for the special issue or processes for the review of manuscripts, please contact the special issue editors:
Dr. Jing Lin (linjing@bnu.edu.cn)
Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality
Beijing Normal University
9501 Jingshi Building
Haidian, Beijing 100875
China
Dr. Troy Sadler (tsadler@unc.edu)
School of Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 E. Cameron Ave.
Chapel Hill, NC 27410
United States
Dr. Rebecca Lesnefsky (rebecca.lesnefsky@cortland.edu)
School of Education CEC Department
SUNY Cortland
103 Prospect Terrace
Cortland, NY 13045
United States
来源：https://www.springeropen.com/collections/diserssise