“I am a scientist, but nobody needs to know”: towards an understanding about professional self-designation among university professors in Brazil

Abstract

As in many countries, in Brazil science is conducted mostly inside universities by professors and their graduate students and post-docs. This article aims at assessing the circumstances under which university professors of a biological sciences institute of a public university are willing to adopt the term ‘scientist’ as a form of self-designation. Using an online questionnaire (n=21) and two focus groups (n=12) we investigated how these professionals call or describe themselves under different situations and for distinct publics. We found that most professors prefer not to call themselves a ‘scientist’. They find it a natural choice not to use the term ‘scientist’ to designate their job in scientific research and believe that university professor is appropriate as well as it is a respectful title. However, the participants could envision possible impacts of this attitude on the general public and implications for the public perception of science and technology such as investment and science career choice. The origin of the word scientist and the history of the Brazilian scientific community are brought about to shed some light on the gathered data.

Key words
public perception of science and technology; representations of science and technology; science and media; science professionalism; University community