The Social Sense of Geological Literacy

Ways and methodologies to teach geology are widely debated and are frequent topics in geoscientific discussion, whereas there is much less attention to the subject of geological literacy. It is more and more frequent to hear complaints by un iversity teachers regarding the deficient geological knowledge of incoming university students, and this is especially the case in Argentina’s universities. Teachers simply characterize the problem affirming: “the students do not know anything about geology” or “in high school nobody taught them geology”. Additionally, most geologists consider that it is not their problem and consider secondary teachers as uniquely responsible. Nevertheless, the matter is more complicated than this and deserves a different approach for resolution. In this contribution I table reflections on the need to address the lack of preparation and the scarcity of geological knowledge in terms of geological literacy, rather than in terms of


IN TROD UCTION
nad equ ate geological know led ge not only affects stu d ents in u niversities, bu t also the m ajority of citizens w ho finish their second ary stu d ies w ithou t having learned any basic geological notions. The m ost w orrisom e aspect in this situ ation is that this ignorance also characterizes politicians, technicians, jou rnalists and science com m u nicators, w ho act and give opinions on natu ral resou rces and environm ental problem s, w ithou t any com pr ehension as to cau ses and effects of the issu es, thereby contribu ting to the increase in confusion in the pu blic. For too m any years, the sam e opinions on this m atter have been repeated , by u sing tw o key concepts, "know led ge" and "teaching", and by om itting the concept of "learning", w hile the three concepts shou ld be all consid ered sim u ltaneou sly w ithin the fram ew ork of the real cond itions in w hich they interact. Withou t d ou bt there are efforts to im prove this state of affairs, bu t for the sake of brevity I w ill m ake som e generalizations, that in som e cases m ay seem im p roper and incorrect. Therefore, m y apologies for those w ho w ill feel slighted and m y encou ragem ent to them to spread their achievem ents throu gh pu blications that are accessible to ed u cators.
Im proving teaching of geology requ ires an a dequ ate characterization of the problem , by focu sing on the sense of geological learning and know led ge. This rep resents a great challenge for the geological com m u nity, both in term s of u nd erstand ing the concept of geological liter acy and in term s of intervention w ith concrete actions in prim ary, second ary and u niversity stu d ies. Another challenge is to im p rove the app roach to the problem , given the com p lexity to intervene in these d om ains, the lack of ind ivid u als w ho are expert in the su bject, the conflicts of interests and the resistance of som e teachers to introd u ce changes in their u su al practices.
In that sense, w e cou ld list other challenges, bu t I w ill d o so later, after a few reflections on scientific literacy in general and geological literacy in p articu lar.

SOME N OTION S ON SCIEN TIFIC LITERACY
The term "literacy" w as first u sed in the late nineteenth centu ry to ind icate the cap ability to read and w rite. It is one of those self-d efining term s, su ch as "freed om ", "ju stice", "hap p iness", w hich w e incorp orate in ou r cu ltu re for their content, need ed qu alities and d esirable attribu tes (Braslavsky, 2003). Since then, the I term "literacy" has been rep hrased and a consensu s has been bu ilt on the m eaning of Scientific and Technological Literacy (ACT in Spa nish). It "d esignates a type of know led ge, skills or com petences that in ou r technical-scientific w orld correspond to w hat literacy w as in the last centu ry" (Fou rez, 1997: 15). In ad d ition, the term "literacy" propitiates a m ore com plex cu ltu re that gives valu e to both the pertinence and the ad equ ate u se of know led ge as an ethical com m itm ent to reflect on the social and p olitical consequ ences of its app lication. Within this orientation, it has been pointed ou t that "given the com plexity of p resent and futu re global challenges, higher ed u cation has the social responsibility to ad vance ou r u nd erstand ing of m u ltifaceted p roblem s that im ply social, econom ic, scientific and cu ltu ral aspects, as w ell as ou r capability of ad d ressing them . H igher ed u cation shou ld take on social lead ership in global know led ge-bu ild ing to ad d ress global challenges, inclu d ing food secu rity, clim ate change, w ater m anagem ent, intercu ltu ral d ialogu e, renew able energy and pu blic health" (UN ESCO, 2009). As a resu lt, w e can assu m e that scientific liter acy is necessary to im prove the qu ality of citizen particip ation in d ecision -m aking, in econom ic policies d eveloped in d ifferent sectors (for exam ple: legislative projects at m u nicipal, pr ovincial and / or national scale), as w ell as in the pu blic hearings convened w hen w orks that have an im pact on the environm ent are carried ou t. Su ch tim ely and relevant participation r equ ires from "citizens m ore than a very high level of know led ge, the linking of a m inim u m of specific know led ge, perfectly accessible to citizens, w ith global ap proaches and ethical consid erations that d on't requ ire any specialization." (Gil y Vilches, 2003).

D IMEN SION S OF GEOLOGICAL LITERACY
Geological literacy is a m u ltid im ensional challenge and requ ires new cu rricu lar p rop osals overcom ing trad itional teaching, restricted only to conceptu al and m ethod ological geological contents. In this sense, it is recom m end ed to incorp orate other d im ensions su ch as the history of geological id eas, epistem ology, the natu re of geology, specific techniqu es and m ethod s, professional practices, and their role in perso nal and social life (ad apted from Bybee, 1997; qu oted in Gil-Pérez et al., 2005). In this app roach, it can be pointed ou t that geological cu rricu la for all the citizens shou ld have the follow ing com m on elem ents (ad apted from Marco, 2000):  Practical geological literacy that allow s u s to m ake u se of geological know led ge in d aily life, in ord er to im prove living cond itions, as w ell as featu res, natu ral resou rces and risks of ou r environm ent.  Civic geological literacy, so that all people can socially intervene in political d ecisions w ith d ifferent criteria, inclu d ing ethical and scientific criteria.  Cu ltu ral geological literacy that d ebates the m eaning of science and technology and their im pact on the social stru ctu re.
In short, geological literacy in a broad sense shou ld integrate p ractical literacy, civic literacy and cu ltu ral literacy for citizens in general.

GEOLOGICAL LITERACY IN ED UCATION AL LEVELS
The change from "geological teaching" to "geological literacy" im plies both an expansion of content and a new ap proach, centered on lear ning, in w hich the concepts red u ce their trad itional role, to share it w ith skills and attitu d es in the u se of su ch concepts. This ap proach requ ires new d id actics, app ropriate to each ed ucational level, to the "geological horizon" that su rrou nd s each institu tion, to the resou rces available, and so on . All these elem ents configu re a set of specific need s that are su bjects of stu d y, creation and research of a new d isciplinary field called the "Geolod actics" (Lacreu , 2012). In the social im aginary, in the general ed u cational regu lations and in the specific cu rricu lar m od els, it is expected that pre-u niversity ed ucation shou ld be aim ed at training citizens, sim u ltaneou sly training for w ork insertion and propaed eu tic training.
In Argentina, w ith regard s to the prim ary level of ed u cation, it is perceived that "practical geo-logical literacy" inclu d es su fficient geological contents. H ow ever, sequ encing and grad u ality are consid ered inad equ ate, w hereas d id actic strategies often ignore field w ork and the CTS ap proach (Lacreu , 2015).
On the other hand , in the Argen tine second ary ed u cational level, the geological contents are alm ost nu ll w ithin the N AP (Priority Learning N u cleu s) of N atu ral Sciences for the com m on cycle of all high schools. They are also absent in m ost of the orientated high schools, except for the orientations in "N atu ral Sciences" and "Environm ent", in w hich the new specific cu rricu lar space of "Earth Sciences" w as created . H ow ever, it is not possible to d evelop geolog ical contents in d epth, since the necessary p r erequ isites d o not exist (Lacreu , 2014). In relation to the second ary ed u cational level, it is im portant to note an im portant contribu tion on Literacy in Earth Sciences m ad e by a grou p of Sp anish colleagu es (Ped rinaci et al., 2013) w ho m anaged to synthesize 5 objectives and 10 key id eas that constitu te an ind ispensable gu id e to review the Argentine cu rricu la. With reference to the u niversity level, geology careers offer an ad equ ate higher ed u cation in specific geological aspects, far su rpassing the need s of "practical geological literacy". H owever, there are shortcom ings in "civic geological literacy" and "cu ltu ral geological literacy", save som e exceptions, that persist throu ghou t the form ative stage, w eakening the integral training and , therefore, the professional profile of geologists, as requ ired by the new regu lations in force since 2008. Precisely for this reason, I share the great concern that exists in the international arenas w here the problem of higher ed u cation is d iscu ssed .
In m y experience of m ore than 30 years in u n iversity teaching, in d ivu lgation activities and training of teachers I have been able to w itness the insu fficient literacy of u niversity aspirants. Ind eed , this is m anifested in the scarce geolog ical and m athem atical know led ge and in a n otable d eficit in the cap ability of read ingcom prehension as w ell as in com m u nicative com petencies. For these reasons, the national u niversities ad opted su p port policies to reinforce su ch instru m ental skills and to red u ce the nu m ber of stu d ents that d ropou t. In ad d ition, geology cou rses inclu d e su bjects su ch as "In-trod u ction to Geology" and cou rses on read ing, com prehension and w riting of scientific texts, as a w ay of com pensating for the d eficit in the "practical geological literacy" of entrants. Unfortu nately, there are no know n m ech anism s that attem pt to revert the insu fficient cultural literacy, referring to the historical, epistem ological and m ethod ological aspects of geology, as w ell as the d eficit in citizen literacy, w hich is reflected in the d ifficu lties to id entify m ain and second ary cau ses, or to recognize ethical conflicts in professional practices, or to express one's ow n id eas, taking into accou nt d ifferent points of view . In short, I consid er that su ch com petencies lim it the ind ivid u als to fu lly and actively particip ate in civ ic life. Finally, a balance cou ld be created : ju st as w e w ond ered abou t the scientific geological liter acy of citizens, w e shou ld also w ond er abou t the scientific literacy of the scientists. This ap pa rent play on w ord s refers to the concept of literacy as a m etaphor for the integral training of citizens that w e have alread y consid ered as insu fficient. This is w hy w e can form u late som e rhetorical qu estions that cou ld help to think the challenges of the 21st centu ry:  W hy do the national universities and the national geology curricula not address the shortcomings in "civic" and "cultural" literacy, with the same dedication they have to overcoming practical literacy?  How much better would be the training of geologists, how much better and more ethical could their professional practices and contributions to sustainable development be, if the dimensions of "civic" and "cultural" literacy were explicitly and formally incorporated in the curricula?
The answ ers to the above qu estions and their practical d evelopm ent w ill rem ain pend ing. H ow ever, som e reflections and proposals are shared on som e of the challenges that I believe w ill have to be assu m ed w ithin the d isciplinary field of geology, w hile interacting w ith other d isciplinary field s. The interaction betw een "geolod acts", teachers, acad em ic au thorities and provincial and n ational political officers w ill be essential to improve geological literacy in prim ary, second ary and higher ed u cation, in keeping w ith the com plexity that is envisaged for the 21 st century.

Creating favorable instances for the development of geolodactics
The scarce geological training of pre-u niversity teachers and the lack of geolod actic resou rces often generate a certain d egree of insecu rity and fear for teaching geology. Thu s, it is impossible to m otivate stu d ents. This is a seriou s problem w hose approach requ ires a nu m ber of specialists in geolod actics in a greater nu m ber than cu rrently exists in Argentina. Consequ en tly, the national u niversities have the social and political responsibility to favor the creation and d evelopm ent of geological research centers, as w ell as to incorporate researchers w ith exclusive d ed ication, from geology to ped agogy (Lacreu , 2107a). Training and u pd ating of teachers is im perative to aband on the u su al w ay to think of teaching geology and to replace it w ith new app roaches that prom ote geolog ically significant learning. In that sense, w e m u st w ork on the d id actic transposition (Lacreu , 1996) and on the re-signification of geology as a historical science.

Renew ing the teaching of geology by emphasizing the character of historical science
Prim ary and second ary ed u cation shou ld be renew ed by incorporating approaches d ifferent than u su al. On the one hand , m eaningfu l lear ning shou ld be p rom oted throu gh school research, w ith and w ithou t field trip s, p roblem solving or case stu d ies. On the other hand , it is necessary to renew the epistem ological approach and to d evelop strategies that allow one to u nd erstand the historical and interpretative character of geology (Frod em an, 1995). It has long been prop osed that "geology is a historical science of natu re, becau se it stu d ies natu ral processes throu gh form s (fossilized in the original) reflected in geological stru ctu res" (Potapova, 1968). In this sense, som e experiences related to the constru ction of the geological history of land scape can be consid ered , both throu gh field w ork (Lacreu , 2007) and virtu al classroom w ork (Lacreu , 2012b). In this w ay, attem pts have been m ad e to d elete concep tu al errors abou t the im m u tability of relief, its rocks and stru ctu res and to prom ote aw areness of the hu m an im p act on natu re. Man leaves m arks on the geological land scape, ju st as natu ral pr ocesses of the past have left m arks that w e can see tod ay on the present land scape. The hu m an m arks are of a d ifferent natu re, bu t their intensity is so strong as to su ggest the introd u ction of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene (Cru tzen, 2002).

Promoting epistemological coherence in the teaching of the natural sciences
N atu ral sciences cannot be properly tau ght if geology is absent. This im p lies the reform u lation of cu rricu la at the pre-u niversity level, u niversity teaching form ation, and training cou rses in natu ral sciences, so that geology can be incorporated as an inherent d iscipline in this grou p of sciences. This constitu tes a political d ebt of u niversity au thorities (and a challenge for the geological com m u nity), that has been tolerated by action or om ission. This perm issiveness hap pens u nd er the assu m p tion that it is an ed u cational p roblem , alien to geology, w ithou t realizing that its resolu tion inevitably requ ires the com m itted p articipation of geologists in general and geolod acts in p articu lar. In this sense, in ord er to achieve an integrative teaching of the natu ral sciences, it is essential to u se the historical ap proach, to highlight the fact that m any of the biological, physical and chemical processes occu rred in the past have been record ed in geological m aterials, in d ifferent tim es and places throu ghou t the history of the Earth. These m aterials have u nd ergone chan ges of shape and p osition and m any of them contain m ining resou rces necessary for society. Therefore, the search for new resou rces r equ ires the historical reconstru ction of geolog ical lan d scapes.

Promoting epistemological coherence in the teaching of the natural sciences
The lack of access to civic and cu ltu ral geological literacy, as w ell as the scarce capability of w riting and scientific com m u nication, seriou sly threaten the achievem ent of the professional profile requ ired by national regu lations (Lacreu , 2017b). Consequ ently, cu rricu la shou ld recognize su ch shortcom ings and explicitly incorporate com pensatory strategies. For this pu rp ose, the national u niversities com m itm ent to society shou ld be rem em bered : geology has been d eclared a d iscipline of pu blic interest, becau se its p rofessional p ractice can influ ence pu blic safety, by pu tting risk on health, safety, rights, p roperty or training of the inhabitants, as ind icated in the Argentine regulations. It is necessary that stu d ents are pr ogressively trained accord ing to the national r equ irem ents of higher ed u cation for the 21st centu ry (UN ESCO, 2009), w hich p articu larly em phasizes the need for geologists to carry ou t their professional activities w ith a sense of eth ical and social resp onsibility, and w ith the com m itm ent to favou r su stainable d evelopm ent.

Contributing to sustainable development and to the clarification of its meaning
Bru nd tland , in her first and valu able report (UN , 1987), proposes that Su stainable Developm ent "is cap able of respond ing to the need s of the present, w ithou t com prom ising the p ossibility of fu tu re generations to satisfy their need s". At the m om ent, it cou ld seem a sed u ctive bu t som ew hat naive statem ent. In fact, it d oes not specify w hich social sectors are ben eficiaries of the "need s of the present" and cannot anticipate w hat the need s of "fu tu re generations" w ill be. Besid es, m ost environm ental problem s are the resu lt of com panies that d efine them selves as su stainable, bu t too often they only favor econom ic grow th to the d etr im ent of social equ ity and ecological balance. These situ ations requ ire that geologists are aw are of the role (p assive or active) that they can play in the creation/ solu tion of these problem s (Lacreu , 2017b).