ABSTRACT
Today’s citizens are confronted by a range of what are called ‘soft disasters’— “environmental and political crises that emerge only slowly but at high cost to society, not least the erosion of public confi dence and legitimacy” (ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme, 2000, p. 3). Such soft disasters include socio-scientifi c issues such as BSE, the GM food debate, HIV-AIDS and global climate change. To understand such issues, the public needs an education that is broad and deep enough to unravel the complex interrelationships among science, technology, society and the environment (STSE). However, many of these topics are controversial and teachers face many challenges in attempting to address them in their classrooms.
