Astronomy Education: An International Perspective

This paper gives an overview of astronomy education, with special reference to the work of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and the needs of the developing countries. Several conference proceedings review astronomy education in more depth: Hunt (1986), Pasachoff and Percy (1990), Ros (1995), Percy (1996), and Gouguenheim et al. (1998), as well as the triennial reports of IAU Commission 46 (Teaching of Astronomy). There is no journal dealing solely with astronomy education, or any regular comprehensive bibliography, but many articles on this topic – often with an international flavour – are found in Mercury, the non-technical publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific