Resumé

I am a ‘retired’ (Emeritus) Associate Professor in the Dept. of CTL at OISE, University of Toronto. Although I no longer teach (except for supervizing two PhD students), I do some university service work – including as ‘Chair’ for doctoral exams and some tasks with the SMT Centre in CTL. Mostly, though, I focus on my research & publication, which is based on STEPWISE. Some publications from this research are highlighted here. Refer also to my page on ORCID and my department’s profile for me. A PDF copy of my full curriculum vitae is provided here. If you would like copies of unpublished manuscripts (e.g., conference papers), please write to me at: larry.bencze@utoronto.ca.

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Refereed

  • Tsoumparis, D., Bencze, L., Curtis, S., & Zouda, M. (in press). Practical suggestions for promoting science student actions to overcome social and environmental harms. School Science Review,.
  • Bencze, L., Pouliot, C., Pedretti, E., Simonneaux, L., Simonneaux, J., & Zeidler, D. (2020). SAQ, SSI and STSE education: Defending and extending ‘Science-in-Context’. Cultural Studies of Science Education, x(x), xx-xx.
  • Bencze, L., El Halwany, S., Milanovic, M., Qureshi, N., & Zouda, M. (2019). Roadblocks to critical and active civic engagement in/through school science: Stories from the field. Educação e Fronteiras, 9(25), 48-71.

Non-refereed

  • Bencze, J.L. (2020). Post-pandemic science & technology education: An opportune and necessary ideological battle. Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education, 11(2), 33-54.
  • Bencze, J.L. (2020). Stepwise progress towards more widespread altruistic uses of science and technology. Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education, 11(1), VI-VIII.
  • Milanovic, M., El Halwany, S., Nurul-Hassan, M., Rahman, S., Zouda, M., & BenczeL. (2020). Lured to linger: Engaged researcher/facilitators’ reflections. Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education, 11(1), III-V.

Chapters in Books

  • El Halwany, S., Zouda, M., Pouliot, C., & Bencze, L. (in press). Student-teachers’ relationships to knowledge and to their practices for critical and activist STSE education. K.W. Clausen & G. Black (Eds.), The future of action research in education: A Canadian perspective (pp. xx-xx). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
  • Bencze, L., & Carter, L. (2020). Capitalism, nature of science and science education: Interrogating and mitigating threats to social justice. In H.A. Yacoubian & L. Hansson (Eds.), Nature of science for social justice (pp. xx-xx). Dordrecht: Springer.
  • Bencze, L., El Halwany, S., & Zouda, M. (2020). Science teacher education promoting critical and active public engagement to address socioscientific problems. In M. Evagorou, J. Alexis Nielsen & J. Dillon (Eds.), Science teacher education for responsible citizenship: Towards a pedagogy for relevance through socio-scientific issues (pp. 63-83). Dordrecht: Springer.
  • Bencze, L., Carter, L., Groleau, A., Krstovic, M., Levinson, R., Martin, J., Martins, I., Pouliot, C., & Weinstein, M. (2019). Promoting students’ critical and active engagement in socio-scientific problems: Inter/Trans-national perspectives. In E. McLoughlin, O. Finlayson, S. Erduran & P. Childs (Eds.), Bridging research and practice in science education: Selected papers from the ESERA 2017 conference (pp. 171-188). Dordrecht: Springer.

Books

Refereed

Non-refereed

  • Milanovic, M., El Halwany, S., Krstovic, M., Mitchell, K., Padamsi, Z., Qureshi, N., Schaffer, K., Zouda, M., & Bencze, L. (2019). Science education for civic action: A ‘STEPWISE’ project resource guide for teachers. Toronto: STEPWISE Research and Publication Team (PDF & Site).
  • Zouda, M., Schaffter, K., Pouliot, C., Milanovic, M., El Halwany, S., Padamsi, Z., Qureshi, N., & Bencze, L. (2019). Ban the dust: A graphic novel about citizen action to eliminate urban dust pollution. Toronto: STEPWISE Research and Publication Team [Novel; Suggested Pedagogy].

Conference Presentations

ASERA 2020 (June 23-26, 2020).

  • Bencze, J.L. (2020). Crises, capitalism and critical and altruistic science and technology education (video; summary).
  • Bencze, L., Del Gobbo, D., El Halwany, S., Milanovic, M., Nurul-Hassan, M., Padamsi, Z., Qureshi, N., Rahman, S., & Zouda, M. (2020). Promotion of ecojust engineering design, production and mobilization in/through school science (video; summary).
  • El Halwany, S., Zouda, M., Milanovic, M., Hassan, N., Rahman, S., & Bencze, L. (accepted). A present future: Interrogating ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ through science education (video).
  • Nurul-Hassan, M., El Halwany, S., Schaffer, K., & Bencze, L. (2020). Enhancing project-based STEM education through student participation and autonomy: Implementing a STEPWISE framework (video).
  • Zouda, M., Tsoubaris, D., El Halwany, S., Milanovic, M., Padamsi, Z., Qureshi, N., & Bencze, L. (2020). ‘It’s very complicated’: Expanding students’ views on relationships regarding socioscientific issues (video).

Future Conferences: Lebanon 2020; IOSTE 2021; NARST 2021; AERA 2021; ESERA 2021.

Some Recent Conference Papers: AERA (2019, 2018); CSSE (2019, 2018); ESERA (2019, 2017); IOSTE (2018a, 2018b); NARST (2017a, 2017b, 2017c); SSSS (2019, 2018).

Talks

Academic

  • Bencze, J.L. (invited). Resisting ‘The Borg’: Striving for ecojustice? A Keynote Address. Centre for Lebanese Studies, Lebanese American University & Lebanese Association for Educational Studies, Curriculum Reform Conference: Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 13-14, 2020 (tentative).

Professional

  • STEPWISE R&P Team (2019). Science education for civic action: A symposium for science and technology educators to explore and discuss STEPWISE-inspired teaching and learning resources. OISE, University of Toronto, May 11, 2019.

EDITORIAL WORK

Editorial Boards

  • Cultural Studies of Science Education. This journal’s priorities highly align with my socio-political views. Supporter by Springer publishers, they also host the annual CSSE Forum – a small conference featuring longer, small-group, discussions.
  • Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education. This series of books published by Springer also aligns with my political views and is edited by Dana Zeidler – a prominent scholar regarding socioscientific issues in science education.

Journal Reviewer

I also review manuscripts for a few refereed journals: IJSE; SE; S&E.

Journal Co-founder/Editor

Dr. Steve Alsop at York University in Toronto and I co-founded the Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education in 2009. Our latest issues – a school-based one and a university-based one – are highlighted below. Please consider helping us advertise these and other JASTE issues.

Also see our video advertisement for this third in a series of school-based JASTE issues, here.

EDUCATIONAL & WORK BACKGROUND

Education

  • PhD, Education (U. Toronto [OISE]), 1995); Thesis: Bencze, J. L. (1995). Towards a more authentic and feasible science curriculum for secondary schools. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, The University of Toronto.
  • BEd, Biology/Chemistry (Queen’s U., 1977).
  • MSc, Biology (Queen’s U., 1977); Thesis: Bencze, J. L. (1977). Cytogenetic and fine structural analysis of polytene chromosomes from Drosophila melanogaster. Unpublished MSc Thesis. Kingston, ON: Queen’s University.
  • BSc, Biology (Queen’s U., 1974).
  • Secondary School Diploma, PCVS, Peterborough, ON, 1970.
  • Secondary School Diploma (Technology Studies), ASCI, Peterborough, ON, 1968.
    Elementary School Diploma, St. Peter’s Elementary School, Peterborough, ON, 1964.

Work Experience

  • Emeritus Associate Professor, Science Education, July 1, 2018 – present.
  • Assistant-Associate Professor, Science Education, OISE/UT, 1998-2018 (tenured, 2003).
  • Assistant Professor of Education, College of Education, U. Sask., 1997-98.
  • Independent Science Consultant, 1995-97.
  • Consultant, Intermediate & Senior Science, York Region RCSSB, Ontario, 1988-92.
  • Teacher of Science, Elementary & Secondary Independent, Private & Public Schools, Ontario, 1977-88.

FORMER UNIVERSITY TEACHING

Throughout my university teaching career, first in the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan (1997-98) and then at OISE, University of Toronto (1998-2018), my teaching was always co-affected by my academic reading, educational research and publication programme. Some major influences, which also had effects on my curriculum development (see Resources), included:

For a brief description of major university courses taught be me, refer here.

Personal Note

After ‘retirement’ on July 1, 2018, from teaching and most university committee work, I moved to Kingston, ON, mainly for family reasons. Apart from the current pandemic restrictions, however, I typically travel to Toronto for meetings with graduate students, colleagues, teachers and others for 1-2 days per week. I usually can be quickly reached by email at: larry.bencze@utoronto.ca.