History

Scientific education has received growing attention in the last decades, a fact even more apparent in the last years. This is a consequence of two simultaneous features. On the one hand, the complex network of vital elements involving our lives is totally rooted on scientific and technical principles. On the other hand, people have in general very floppy skills on that subjects, certainly less than necessary for a proper exercise of citizenship.

This situation has caused a lot of concern among educators and scientific researchers, and triggered several initiatives intended to reverse it by creating opportunities to favor a better background of skills in science and technology. These attempts have tried to avoid mistakes committed in the former decades, like atomizing and isolating the various scientific domains and separating human domains from those of exact and natural sciences. 

Today’s challenge is to begin to revert this worrying situation of scientific illiteracy, albeit without ignoring the need of also a strong basic background in social sciences and humanities, in order to favor a reintegration between the humanistic and the scientific cultures. It is hoped thus to guarantee that some very fundamental features concerning the relationship between humans and between them and the environment, like ethics and solidarity, can guide the central issues of any educational initiative, even more urgently and affirmatively for scientific education. 

Inspired by these facts and based on their own experiences of several years devoted to the teaching and popularization of astronomy in various levels, and also attending public visitations of people with several different profiles, in diverse contexts of formal and informal teaching, a group of professional astronomers has decided to create the Latin-American Journal of Astronomy Education (RELEA).

Due to operational issues and budget considerations, and with the aim of granting the widest access, we decided to adopt an online journal format. The RELEA was launched in 2004 and it was hosted by the servers of the Instituto Superior de Ciências Aplicadas (ISCA), located in Limeira city (São Paulo, Brasil) until 2007. Presently, the journal site is hosted by the servers of the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), located in São Carlos city (São Paulo, Brasil), the expectation is to issue two volumes per year.

Other factors that have contributed to launch this new Journal include the existence of an international effort dating from several years ago, which operates to enhance the debate and seeks for progress in Astronomy Education. Within this framework, there exist in several continents associations and related publications specifically dealing with Astronomy Education. Some examples are the european "Association for Astronomy Education", which published the journal "Gnomon"; the "Astronomical Society of the Pacific" (ASP), responsible for the journal "Universe in the Classroom", and in Asia there was "Teaching Astronomy in Asian Pacific Region". Later on the electronic journal "Astronomy Education Review", produced by the "US National Optical Astronomy Observatories" and the ASP was published between 2004 and 2013. Globally the Commission 46 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) (formerly called "Teaching of Astronomy" and presently "Astronomy Education and Development"), publishes the "IAU Commission 46 Newsletter", also in the on-line electronic format.

A conclusion that emerges from this brief listing is that there are no institutions or specific publications in Astronomy Education which congregate experiences and proposals from Latin-American countries. 

We shall mention also that some years ago Paulo S. Bretones, while acting as the Coordinator of the Teaching and Public Outreach Section of the Ibero-American Astronomy League (LIADA), received from Dr. John Percy, then acting as president of the Commission 46 of the IAU, the following suggestion (on 06/10/97): “… about the LIADA, someone recently asked me whether there is some coordinated group dealing with the teaching of astronomy in Latin-America, somewhat analogous to the group “Teaching of Astronomy in the Asian-Pacific Region”. Maybe your group can play that role.” Since that we had begun to join efforts to publish a Journal with the referred scope and profile.

Thus, the Journal will be a forum for the publication of papers in astronomy education, and will serve to show the latin-american countries work in this area. The Journal is targeted to a readership of educators and researchers interested in astronomy education, teachers of all levels and interested people in general.

The launching and initial steps were taken at the XVIII Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Astronomical Society (SAB) held in Florianópolis (Santa Catarina, Brazil) on August, 2002. However, it is important to remark that the Journal has no links with the SAB. The latter has been very receptive to this initiative headed by some of its associate members, allowing the diffusion of the launching because of the opinion that such a Journal may be interesting for the whole astronomical community and may bring a positive contribution to the astronomy education in general. However, and in spite of this attitude and the fact that most brazilian members of the Editorial Board are also members of the SAB, the new Journal does not represent the Brazilian Astronomical Society in any circumstance, it is not sponsored by the latter, and does not hold any relationship (formal or otherwise) with the aforementioned entity. The contents and managing of the RELEA are an exclusive responsibility of the Editors and Editorial Board, bearing no involvement with the SAB.