Unveiling science capital in everyday life: exploring the potential of family everyday life in shaping primary and lower secondary danish student's science capital

Based on 54 interviews with Danish families of pupils aged 6 to 15, the article explores how families’ everyday life influence children's opportunities for shaping their science capital in informal settings. Our results indicate that parents' own life history, leisure activities, interests, values, attitudes, knowledge, and skills strongly influence how science is approach, talked about and enacted within the family. All factors which are widely considered as influential in shaping children’s science capital. Additionally, our findings suggest that although family everyday life involved a large range of science-related experiences they are often not recognised, related to, or framed as relevant to formal education by the families. Instead, parents predominantly value these experiences for their perceived contributions to: lifelong skills for everyday life and personal development; bonding within the family and friendships through shared experiences; and physical and mental well-being. Moreover, the results implied that families primarily interact with natural objects and phenomena through a sensory, creative, and aesthetic approach. Finally, the data indicates that the place of residence, including both home and local community resources, significantly influences families' science-related experience. Implications for science education are discussed, considering the use of a "Science Capital Teaching Approach”.