Technological Literacy and Citizenship

This paper is based on a talk at the Second National Science, Technology and Society (STS) Conference, February 6-8, 1987 , Washington, DC.

Leonard J. Waks and Madhu S. Prakash , "STS Education and Its Three Step-Sisters ," Bull. Sci. Tech. Soc. 5, 106 (1985).

Edward B. Fiske , "Searching for the Key to Science Literacy," New York Times Supplement: Education Life, p. 20 (January 4, 1987).

Ibid.

Few important issues do turn on purely scientfiic or technical questions. See the discussion below.

Ibid.

On "international illiteracy," see The Southern Governors Association Report of November, 1986; on "political illiteracy," see W. Russell Neuman , The Paradox of Mass Politics: Knowledge and Opinion in the American Electorate (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press , 1986); on "historical illiteracy," see William Bennett , "History -- Key to Political Responsibility," in History, Geography, and Citizenship: The Teacher's Role (Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1986).

"Searching for the Key," pp. 21, 23.

"STS Education and Its Three Step-Sisters," p. 106.

See Leonard J. Waks , "Reflections on Technological Literacy," Bull. Sci.Tech. Soc. 6, 333 (1986).

Jon D. Miller , The American People and Science Policy (New York: Pergamon Press, 1983) pp. xv, 2.