While argumentation has long been a focus of science education research, the broad societal landscape is being reshaped by digital technologies and the diverse ways in which individuals engage with (mis)information in both public and educational spaces. The pressing issue has become particularly visible and urgent as various online platforms including social media emerge as dynamic public arenas for the exchange of information and opinions.

This collection explores the intersections of scientific literacy with the argumentation and other reasoning skills necessary to navigate information in the classroom, public debates or online. The articles examine how people navigate scientific information in a range of settings, and the role of traditional and digital interventions in enhancing access to scientific knowledge while critically examining the risks posed by misinformation and information overload. They also explore how learning opportunities can be created for collaborative and dialogic argumentation for students and adults. A recurring theme is the need for critical reasoning skills to identify credible sources and construct evidence-based arguments, particularly in environments rife with conflicting claims and lacking conclusive evidence.

The collection provides a nuanced understanding of how critical engagement with misinformation and promotion of evidence-based reasoning are evolving across diverse educational contexts. It also serves as a timely contribution to ongoing discussions about preparing learners and teachers to engage thoughtfully and responsibly with science in a rapidly changing world.

We invite future contributions that broaden the themes represented in the collection, for example, by exploring the integration of emerging digital tools and platforms, and the different political, cultural and scientific contexts where misinformation may originate and spread. Further research on justice and equity-oriented perspectives are also invited to contribute to the understanding of how scientific literacy and argumentation skills can be enhanced in the age of misinformation. Methodologically, we welcome a range of approaches, from systematic reviews and experimental interventions to conversation analysis and ethnography.

In science education, students engage in reading, writing, drawing and representing across multiple modes for a range of reasons, in a range of contexts. Whilst these activities can be seen as having primarily a communication purpose, this Topical Collection focuses on their connection to learning. This connection has been well established in the literature, where the argument is made that these activities are not simply expressions of learning, but are core to the learning process.

This Topical Collection gathers a variety of themes around language and literacy in science that represent an increasing recognition of the critical role of language in framing cognition and/or emotion, and learning, and a widening perspective on the multimodal nature of languages including visual, material and embodied representational modes.

The collection recognises the distinction, but close relationship between representing as part of the process of sense making by individuals’ and/or collectives, and communication processes involving collaborative and public production of language forms (e.g. explaining, interpreting, demonstrating, reporting etc.). There is a similarly close connection between science disciplinary literacies and languages for learning science.

This topical collection consists of papers focused on the presentation, assessment, teaching and theorising of students’ material and embodied representation, communication or literacies in science across all educational levels. Articles in this collection include: semiotic analyses of language and learning; the role of teachers in supporting multimodal literacies; teacher professional learning for literacy support; typologies of language use or language structures; visual literacy; translanguaging and trans-semiotizing; language, power and equity; textbook analyses; literacy-focused assessment.

The topical collection will remain open for the addition of further articles focusing on science-specific language and literacies. All theoretical perspectives are welcome, including social semiotics, systemic functional linguistics, as well as cognitive model-based approaches and perspective on emotive-cognitive interplay. We encourage interested readers to follow the cited references and more recent research to explore the area and help to develop this field further.