A divulgação científica como arena discursiva nas universidades brasileiras : (des)encontro de vozes nos dizeres de professores-pesquisadores

Abstract

Scientific communication has expanded considerably in recent decades and constitutes an object of study for different fields of knowledge, enabling researches based on various perspectives. In this universe of approaches, models of public communication are attributed, especially, concerning the deficit model, which tends to be the most controversial for it stigmatizes the public as ignorant – laypeople –, and scientists as the possessors of scientific knowledge. Thus, this doctoral research seeks to investigate how scientific communication is conceived by professorsresearchers from Brazilian universities. The analysis is based on the theoretical notions of Bakhtin Circle, for which language proceeds from the interaction of multiple voices. As they are intrinsically dialogic, the discourses are intertwined with axiological value, which conduce the points of view from social, cultural and historical contexts. It is understood that science communication bears the evaluative accents that, dialogically, are in a state of constant tension in this discursive arena. Under this theoretical-methodological contribution, the main objective of the present study is to analyze the concepts of science communication in the discourse of professorsresearchers from Brazilian universities in order to improve scientific dissemination in Brazil. The specific objectives are: a) to verify the voices that interact in the discourse of the professors-researchers to conceive science communication; b) to identify the reflections and refractions regarding science, the public and the language of science communication; c) to analyze how the dialogic relations that intertwine the discourses trigger the meanings and resignification of the concepts of science communication; and d) to investigate the otherness constituted with scientists, the public and the disseminators of science. For the realization of this research, scientific papers published between 2016 and 2018 were collected through Google Scholar, indexed by the keyword divulgação científica. As selection criteria, it was determined that the authors of the papers should be professors-researchers of postgraduate programs belonging to 7 (seven) CAPES’ major areas of knowledge: Exact and Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, Applied Social Sciences, Humanities and Multidisciplinary. Altogether 56 papers were gathered to compose the reference corpus from which 34 papers were elected to structure the study corpus. As a result of this analysis, it was found that science communication is still circumscribed by the premises of the deficit model, although other models are evident. Some utterances reflect science as the solution to society's problems, as well as manifest distance from the public by establishing obstacles and building barriers that prevent this relationship. However, it is concluded that science communication results from the relations of otherness between scientist-to-scientist, scientist-to-public and public-to-scientist. In this process of otherness, science communication is refracted both in the interaction between the scientific and academic spheres and in sharing scientific discoveries with the public. From the research as a whole, the thesis defended is that the conceptions of science communication of professors-researchers from Brazilian universities are revealed in the multiplicity of voices, permeated by axiological accents that, on the one hand, reflect the challenges and obstacles of communicating science and, on the other hand, refract the defense and importance of the otherness between science and society.