"A truly liberal" practical education. Science communication and citizenship from the age of steam to the knowledge society: a lesson of modernity from the works and ideas of Joseph Priestley and the Birmingham Lunar Society

In this work I examined the life of Joseph Priestley and I reviewed the story of the dissenting academies and of the Lunar Society of Birmingham and the heritage left by its incredible members. I will presented a case study of practical education in the Lunar Society and Joseph Priestley’s educational works in order to analyse his great role as a leading educationalist of his time. The pragmatic and truly liberal approach to education I was able to highlight helped me to draw a lesson of modernity from their ideas and to project them on the works of John Dewey and place them in the modern debate on science education and citizenship.