Critical modelling of socioscientific issues: fostering critical scientific literacy in Latin America

Abstract This paper advances a research-informed framework for conceptualising modelling-based instruction as a means of fostering critical scientific literacies through socioscientific issues (SSI). Drawing on the SSI research movement and Vision III of scientific literacy, we conceptualise critical modelling as a situated, collective, and deliberative practice that integrates disciplinary reasoning with ethical, political, environmental, and cultural dimensions of knowledge. The framework is grounded in contemporary perspectives on scientific modelling and is explicitly situated within the sociocultural, ecological, and political realities. We identify three cross-cutting conditions for linking modelling and SSI—context selection, practice orientation, and the systematic integration of epistemic and non-epistemic dimensions. These conditions are illustrated through a set of pedagogical pathways across educational levels, including, for instance, an in-depth university-level case on lithium extraction in the Lithium Triangle in Latin America. The examples demonstrate how modelling can mediate engagement with glocal socioecological challenges, such as extractivism and environmental risk, connecting students’ scientific understanding with civic deliberation, justice-oriented reasoning, and sustainability. Accordingly, the framework positions modelling-based instruction as both an epistemic and civic approach to science education, with significant implications for theory, research, curriculum, teacher education, and assessment.