Carter, S. and Michael, Mike. 2003. Signifying across time and space: a case study of biomedical educational texts. Sociology Of Health & Illness, 25(2), pp. 232-259. ISSN 0141-9889 [Article]

No full text available

Abstract or Description

This paper is an analysis of educational materials produced by the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council (MRC). While the MRC's Research Updates are designed to be used in the classroom, interviews with MRC contributors to the Updates and with teachers and students show that their function is complex. Drawing on these data, we point to three facets of biomedical texts that have been neglected. First, we note that these texts are meant to influence only a proportion of their target audience. Their impact is to set up a 'resonance' in this proportion of students, a resonance that will at some point in the future materialise as a choice to pursue a career in biomedical research. This is our second observation: that texts are designed to have a latent effect. These texts also address another audience – government bodies who demand that the MRC engage in educational and public understanding of science activities. As such, and this is our third observation, scientific texts can signify laterally, not to readers directly engaged with them, but to observers whose concern is with their trajectory.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Science and technology studies, sociology of science, public understanding of science, Medical Research Council, biomedical education, texts
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Sociology > Centre for Study of Invention and Social Process (CSISP) [2003-2015]
Dates:	Date Event February 2003 Published
Item ID:	2498
Date Deposited:	21 Jan 2010 16:01
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2017 11:12
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/2498

Edit Record (login required)