Low-Cost, Community-Driven Pedagogy and Canadian SSI Education: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Socioscientific issues (SSI) in education help develop citizens capable of engaging with complex science-society challenges; yet from literature reviewed by the researchers, some Canadian teachers face persistent barriers in implementing SSI education in underserved settings. This paper examines how a low-cost, community-driven approach to teaching waste recycling to Nigerian pre-service teachers that was developed by the authors, might inform SSI pedagogy in Canadian rural, francophone, and Indigenous contexts. Our argument is built upon a review of selected Canadian SSI education literature (2010-2024) and a cross-cultural case analysis to discuss the transferability of the approach and its implications for advancing equity in selected education contexts in Canada. Keywords: socioscientific issues, community-driven pedagogy, teacher education, Canadian science education, equity in education