vAIR—An epistemic model of socioscientific reasoning emerging from citizens engaged in a locally situated SSI

Abstract

Engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) has emerged as an important focus for science education. SSI have been successfully used to teach science concepts, but they also serve a role in helping learners develop a capacity to engage with science in everyday life. Here we present an epistemic framework for characterizing socioscientific reasoning (SSR), called the vAIR framework standing for virtuous Aims, Ideals, and Reasoning Practices. vAIR is a modification of the AIR framework for epistemic cognition. The “virtuous” framing of vAIR is to align with the language of Sosa's virtue epistemology, reflecting a capacity to engage in reasoning that promotes a collective praxis/enterprise. vAIR was developed from a study of citizens engaged in an authentic SSI to offer a deeper authenticity than might be achieved in the study of a classroom. The goal was to better understand the ontologically distinct components of SSR, as well as gain a better understanding of what “constructive” SSR might look like in the context of collective praxis/enterprise in the everyday world. The findings are presented through a series of vignettes that capture the rich detail of the context as well as the nuances between the dimensions of the vAIR model. vAIR, we argue, can serve as a tool for scaffolding the development and assessment of SSR in classrooms.