Stand up for Science: Practical Approaches to Discussing Science that Matters

Expert Voice Q&A – Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard on Audience

Who do you interact with when working in education and/or outreach? What makes this audience different from other groups that you might interact with?

Apart from students and colleagues (both really important when it comes to education and outreach), many of my direct interactions are with online audiences, and with journalists/the media.  However, because so much of my work is focused on making connections between people who know stuff and people who can use it, I end up working with everyone from colleagues across vastly different disciplines, to people in industry, non-government organizations and government agencies, to teachers, students, and members of the public more broadly. 

Perhaps my greatest interest at the moment though is casual learners – people who are driven by their own curiosity or need to find out more about things that interest or affect them. This is a really interesting audience to me, as they effectively control the conversation – if you’re not grabbing their attention and giving them something they think is worth their while, they have no reason to listen to you.

Casual learners are increasingly using platforms like YouTube, and there’s some fantastic science content there already.  But there are also huge gaps in this content, and a noticeable lack of scientists attempting to fill it.  So much of my education and outreach work at the moment is exploring ways of filling these gaps by helping scientists meet this need and opportunity.

What suggestions do you have for making interactions with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences as effective as possible?

Everyone seems to have their own ideas about effective engagement, but for me, it comes down to five things:

·        Being audience-centric (it’s about them, not you);

·        Listening to your audience, and taking them seriously (and being prepared to change your ideas based on what you learn);

·        Having the humility to recognize the limits of your expertise and the validity of theirs;

·        Thinking of interactions as a partnership; and

·        Providing your audience with something of value.

These to me are foundational – they don’t get into the practicalities of engagement, but without them, it’s hard to build trust and engage effectively.

What is the biggest challenge you face when trying to work with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences? What is the biggest reward?

One of the biggest challenges is engaging around contentious issues, where people already have set ideas about what’s right or wrong.  This applies to working with scientists and colleagues as much as it does working with other audiences.  Trust-building is incredibly important here, but this takes time and effort, and often means putting your own ideas on the line and having to both defend and question them at times.  This is hard and sometimes exhausting work, and can put you in a tough position, but at the same time, it’s important if you want to help people use evidence in ways that benefits them.

And the biggest rewards? When someone begins to see the world and their lives in a way that enriches and empowers them, in part as a result of working with you.

As an aside, there is always the lure of mega-impact and scalability here – I would be thrilled if I could say I reach millions of people with the communication and engagement work I do.  But so often, it’s the hidden interactions and impacts that very few if any people other than those involved see that give me the biggest rewards. Especially where they involve people that are too often marginalized by mainstream education and engagement initiatives.

What are you trying to accomplish when you write to or speak with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences?

I have three things that I aim for in engaging with others:

·        Enriching them (helping them see the world in ways that enriches their life);

·        Empowering them (providing access to knowledge and insights that help them have control of their lives); and

·        Educating them (providing skills and knowledge that they can use to good effect). 

When I engage with others, I tend to touch on all three. And all three span talking about specific pieces of information, to how to make sense of information and use it.

For instance, the work I do on the YouTube channel Risk Bites (http://youtube.com/riskbites) is mainly aimed at empowering people by helping them understand risk in a way that leads to informed decisions.  But it also serves a dual purpose of providing educational resources for teachers and others.

In contrast, the Science Showcase YouTube channel (http://YouTube.com/ScienceShowcase) leans more to enrichment (with videos about interesting science), although it also includes information that people can use.

In all of this though, I see my role as giving people access to information that they can use, in a way that makes it as accessible and as useable as possible. My role isn’t to tell people how to think or what to believe, but to give them access to information and help them understand and use it to benefit themselves and those around them.

Information about Andrew Maynard

What is your name, title, and role at Arizona State?

My name is Andrew Maynard. I am a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University, and I direct the ASU Risk Innovation Lab. 

Why are your public engagement efforts in education and/or outreach important (to you and/or to the cause you’re working to promote)?

Much of my work involves helping people make informed decisions around issues that potentially impact their lives, and for this, effective engagement is critical.  For effective decision-making, we need to be able to get useful knowledge out of the heads of people that have it, and into the hands of people who can use it. This means not only understanding how to open up effective lines of communication, but also understanding what potentially impedes communication and engagement.  It also requires practice – lots of it!

Engagement isn’t just about decision-making for me though. Knowledge and understanding both enrich and empower individuals and communities, and I think that scientists – especially in public universities – have a responsibility to ensure that they share their knowledge and understanding as widely and as effectively as possible to enrich and empower others.