Presidential Address: New Year Resolutions? Current and future challenges for science participation

In keeping with seasonal tradition, this presidential address takes the opportunity to reflect back on the previous year and look ahead, identifying key future issues and challenges for science education in 2026 and beyond. The idea of ‘resolution’ is explored and applied to thinking about how to improve science engagement and participation, considering things that we need to commit to doing, be determined about, solve, make clearer and change. The talk begins by reviewing selected statistics and phenomena from 2025, examining the implications of these for equitable science/ STEM engagement and participation, including: The Curriculum and Assessment Review;Trends in STEM GCSE, A Level and degree enrollments;Teacher recruitment and retention figures (from Gatsby and the School Workforce Census) and roll-out of the Initial teacher training and early career framework;The revised international PISA 2025 science assessments;The wider geopolitical landscape, the rise of populism, backlash against EDI policy, research and practice, defunding of STEM engagement interventions and intersectional inequalities (including toxic masculinity and the manosphere).Drawing on a range of academic research and scholarship, future challenges and opportunities are considered along with suggestions on how we might advance the ‘resolution’ of these, including: The STEM engagement crisis and how inclusive pedagogy and evolved ITE and ECR offers could help address this;The variable effectiveness of STEM engagement interventions, a rethinking of the STEM learning ‘ecosystem’ and how interventions might better support the identity and capital of diverse students;Structural issues in science education, such as the stratification of KS4 science in England and forthcoming changes in Wales;The role and relevance of science education to active citizenship – working towards science education for social justice.The presentation concludes with some thoughts to prompt discussion and action on: What do we, collectively, need to be more determined about?What do we need more research on, to make clearer?What do we (individually/ collectively) want to resolve to do?