Toward a justice-centered ambitious teaching framework: Shaping ambitious science teaching to be culturally sustaining and productive in a rural context

We find ourselves at a time when the need for transformation in science education is aligning with opportunity. Significant science education resources, namely the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) framework, need an intentional aim of centering social justice for minoritized communities and youth as well as practices to enact it. While NGSS and AST provide concrete guidelines to support deep learning, revisions are needed to explicitly promote social justice. In this study, we sought to understand how a commitment to social justice, operationalized through culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, Culturally sustaining pedagogies and our futures. The Educational Forum, 2021; 85, pp. 364–376), might shape the AST framework to promote more critical versions of teaching science for equity. Through a qualitative multi-case study, we observed three preservice teacher teams engaged in planning, teaching, and debriefing a 6-day summer camp in a rural community. Findings showed that teachers shaped the AST sets of practices in ways that sustained local culture and addressed equity aims: anchoring scientific study in phenomena important to community stakeholders; using legitimizing students' stories by both using them to plan the following lessons and as data for scientific argumentation; introducing local community members as scientific experts, ultimately supporting a new sense of pride and advocacy for their community; and supporting students in publicly communicating their developing scientific expertise to community stakeholders. In shaping the AST framework through culturally sustaining pedagogy, teachers made notable investments: developing local networks; learning about local geography, history, and culture; building relationships with students; adapting lessons to incorporate students' ideas; connecting with community stakeholders to build scientific collaborations; and preparing to share their work publicly with the community. Using these findings, we offer a justice-centered ambitious science teaching (JuST) framework that can deliver the benefits of a framework of practices while also engaging in the necessarily more critical elements of equity work.     

Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey

This study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies and the challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles with Syrian students in Turkey. The study was built on the four components of pedagogies: academic achievement; cultural competencies; sociopolitical consciousness; and the sustainability of culture. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews and field notes with four teachers who had Syrian students in their classes and four Syrian students. Content analysis was used to examine the data. The findings revealed that both teachers and students had low expectations of academic achievement. Teachers conducted the teaching–learning process entirely according to the perspectives of students who were from the mainstream culture. Teachers tried to improve the cultural competencies and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness of the Syrian students; however, the attempts were limited and inadequate. Although teachers were aware of the importance of sustaining the Syrian culture, they did not know how to do so. The teachers did not have sufficient competencies or experiences to make revisions or to carry out an effective instructional process tailored to the needs of Syrian students because of an absence of skills and knowledge of multicultural education.     

A typology for a social justice approach to assessment: learning from universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy

This paper aims to provide a tentative roadmap for ensuring that higher education policy makers and practitioners are apprised of what might be done to advance a concept of socially just assessment praxis. It extends current thinking around the notion of social justice approaches to assessment by further developing the conceptual framework proposed in McArthur's recent work (2016). It does so by extending understandings of how a socially just perspective might be realised. Drawing upon recent conceptual developments within both Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), the paper proposes a typology for praxis and organisational change. Crucially, this typology focuses upon enhancing learning outcomes for all learners, but it is particularly concerned with enhancing educational experiences and learning outcomes for students that have been systematically marginalised by the normative procedural practices that have traditionally informed the nature of supposedly objective assessment.     

Utilising selected informal science experiences to teach science in inquiry-centred Nigerian classrooms

Abstract

The formal and informal sciences can be integrated for the enhancement of training, research and teaching in the formal school system. The knowledge and methods of informal science, although regarded as crude, local or native, when embedded with formal science, can be subsequently developed and packaged as teaching innovation for the promotion of scientific knowledge, skill and training. This is the focus of this study where selected informal science experiences were used to teach some science concepts in inquiry-centred Nigerian classrooms. In inquiry-based lessons, teachers only act as facilitators and resources, creating the environment for investigations to take place.

In the experiment, students' explorations were centred on informal science activities which were guided to be incorporated into the knowledge structure of formal science classroom experiences. Subjects were Senior Secondary School 11 male and female students taught the topic alkanols; types and preparation including concepts such as fermentation and the brewing process. Informal science activities involving the processing of cassava, grains and other local products were explored by subjects in the experimental group and there was a control group whose subjects were not exposed to informal science activities. Differences in the cognitive and affective learning outcomes of students from the two groups upon data analyses were found to be significant with sex playing a major role. Implications of the findings were highlighted and recommendations were made.     

A case for culturally relevant science education in the summer for African American youth

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of culturally relevant teaching and learning during a summer enrichment program for high school students. Culturally relevant science instruction and curriculum helped students to foster a more positive interest in science and STEM careers as it provided students the opportunity to do science in meaningful and relevant ways. Students were able to see themselves represented in the curriculum and recognized their own strengths; as a result, they were more validated and affirmed in and transformed by, their learning. We use this case to warrant increased support for summer learning programs focused on providing African American youth with access to high quality, culturally relevant/responsive science education.     

A metasynthesis of the complementarity of culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science education in K‐12 settings: Implications for advancing equitable science teaching and learning

Employing metasynthesis as a method, this study examined 52 empirical articles on culturally relevant and responsive science education in K‐12 settings to determine the nature and scope of complementarity between culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science practices (i.e., science and engineering practices identified in the National Research Council's Framework for K‐12 Science Education). The findings from this study indicate several areas of complementarity. Most often, the inquiry‐based practices Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, and Developing and Using Models were used to advance culturally responsive instruction and assessment. The use and development of models, in particular, allowed students to explore scientific concepts through families’ funds of knowledge and explain content from Western science and Indigenous Knowledge perspectives. Moreover, students frequently Analyzed and Interpreted Data when interrogating science content in sociopolitical consciousness‐raising experiences, such as identifying pollution and asthma incidences in an urban area according to neighborhood location. Specific inquiry‐based practices were underutilized when advancing culturally responsive science instruction, though. For example, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking and Engaging in Argument from Evidence were infrequently encountered. However, culturally responsive engineering‐related practices were most often connected with these, and thus, represent potential areas for future complementarity, particularly as the United States embraces the Next Generation Science Standards. In considering innovative directions for advancing equitable science education, several possibilities are discussed in light of the findings of this study.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 54:1143–1173, 2017     

Falling in love and staying in love with science: ongoing informal science experiences support fascination for all children

ABSTRACT

Ages 10–14 mark a period in which children develop a strong sense of whether science is ‘for them,’ a time that typically coincides with the start of middle school in the United States and their first exposure to more rigorous science classes and testing. Experiences with science in and out of school can shape children's motivation to choose science careers or participate in voluntary science classes later on, for better or worse. We explore the hypothesis that children who engage in more informal educational science experiences at the start of this period are more likely than their peers to obtain and maintain interest, curiosity, and mastery goals in science (together forming a construct called fascination). We measured 983 children's fascination with science at the beginning and middle of sixth grade. We found that the children who participated in informal science during this time were more likely to maintain or have greater fascination than at the start. These findings held while also controlling for many potentially confounding covariates and are robust across subgroups by gender and race/ethnicity. Further, the effects are largest for those children whose family generally supports their learning.     

Taking an active stance: How urban elementary students connect sociocultural experiences in learning science

ABSTRACT

In this interpretive case study, we draw from sociocultural theory of learning and culturally relevant pedagogy to understand how urban students from nondominant groups leverage their sociocultural experiences. These experiences allow them to gain an empowering voice in influencing science content and activities and to work towards self-determining the sciences that are personally meaningful. Furthermore, tying sociocultural experiences with science learning helps generate sociopolitical awareness among students. We collected interview and observation data in an urban elementary classroom over one academic year to understand the value of urban students’ sociocultural experiences in learning science and choosing science activities.     

Disciplining Dalmar: a demand to uncover racism and racialization in pursuit of culturally relevant pedagogy

The need for multifaceted analyses of the relationships between how the United States acknowledges racism and how schooling can be structured to mitigate its negative impacts has never been greater, especially given rising attention to the racial “achievement gap.” In suburban, elite Pioneer City, a series of initiatives I will refer to as “the transformation” aimed to eliminate racial disparities in educational achievement through simultaneous efforts to redistribute students from a racially and economically isolated elementary school and train all district staff in a particular brand of culturally relevant pedagogy. This paper draws from a larger yearlong study in which I used critical ethnographic methods to explore tensions between a goal of systemic change and reproductive forces at play in Pioneer City Schools. Focusing on one third-grade student, I offer insights into how the school district’s equity-minded policy changes find their way into one classroom, both reflecting and complicating preexisting ways of viewing the role of race in young children’s lives.     

Pedagogical differences during a science and language intervention for English language learners

The purpose of this study was to compare and describe 8 fifth-grade classrooms by their teachers pedagogy during a quasiexperimental, longitudinal, and field-based project focused on increasing English language learners' (ELLs') achievement in science and language. The larger study found statistically significant and positive intervention effects in favor of the treatment group on measures of science and language achievement. This study adds an in-depth analysis of the teacher pedagogical practices contributing to students' science and language achievement as captured by an observational instrument used during the project. Results from the analysis show how treatment teachers, when compared to control teachers, focused on activities promoting verbal and written interaction among the students and dense cognitive language use during science inquiry instruction. The findings support the importance of effectively using language in the science classroom to improve ELLs' science and language achievement. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Innovative Arts Programs Require Innovative Partnerships: A Case Study of STEAM Partnering between an Art Gallery and a Natural History Museum

ABSTRACT

The arts animate learning because they are inherently experiential and because of their potential to develop creative and critical thinking skills in students. These same skills are valued in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, but the arts have not been consistently included in STEM lessons. We transformed our STEM programming into STEAM programming (STEM plus arts) by creating an innovative partnership between two informal learning environments, the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery and the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at Southern Utah University. The partnership resulted in a STEAM learning program that integrated art and science for K-12 students. We incorporated an art exhibition, a hands-on lesson in art, and an immersive lesson in science that culminated in a student project that merged concepts from both art and science. Through programs each fall from 2012 through 2014, we helped over 6,000 students from southern Utah use concepts from art to deepen their understanding of caterpillar defenses, fish ecomorphology, and pollinator biology.     

Intergenerational learning at a nature center: families using prior experiences and participation frameworks to understand raptors

Using a sociocultural framework to approach intergenerational learning, this inquiry examines learning processes used by families during visits to one nature center. Data were collected from videotaped observations of families participating in an environmental education program and a follow-up task to draw the habitat of raptors. Based on a thematic analysis, researchers developed two themes about the learning processes at play in the nature center, related to the use of prior knowledge. First, families’ prior knowledge used at the nature center came from informal education activities: (a) observation in the outdoors and spaces designed to represent an aspect of nature, (b) media (including books and Internet), and (c) experiences at informal education institutions. Second, when sharing prior knowledge, participation frameworks were created through the conversation that leveled the hierarchy between parent and child allowing for negotiation and collaborative idea formation. In the nature center, families valued social harmony by positioning their children as capable contributors of environmental knowledge. Suggestions to researchers taking a sociocultural approach are given, including the potential of ‘participation frameworks’ as an analytical tool to study learning interactions and as a potential tool for environmental educators to encourage families to create roles and structures for successful learning outcomes in nature centers.     

Measuring the impact of a science center on its community

A range of sources support science learning, including the formal education system, libraries, museums, nature and Science Centers, aquariums and zoos, botanical gardens and arboretums, television programs, film and video, newspapers, radio, books and magazines, the Internet, community and health organizations, environmental organizations, and conversations with friends and family. This study examined the impact of one single part of this infrastructure, a Science Center. This study asked two questions. First, who in Los Angeles (L.A.) has visited the California Science Center and what factors best describe those who have and those who have not visited? Second, does visiting the California Science Center impact public science understanding, attitudes, and behaviors and if so, in what ways? Two random telephone surveys of L.A. county adults 18 years of age and over (n = 832; n = 1,008) were conducted; one in 2000, shortly after the opening of the totally redesigned and rebuilt Science Center and one in 2009, roughly a decade after opening. Samples were drawn from five racially, ethnically, and socio‐economically diverse communities generally representative of greater L.A. Results suggest that the Science Center is having an important impact on the science literacy of greater L.A. More than half of residents have visited the Science Center since it opened in 1998 and self‐report data indicate that those who have visited believe that the Science Center strongly influenced their science and technology understanding, attitudes, and behaviors. Importantly, Science Center visitors are broadly representative of the general population of greater L.A. including individuals from all races and ethnicities, ages, education, and income levels with some of the strongest beliefs of impact expressed by minority and low‐income individuals. The use of a conceptual “marker” substantiates these conclusions and suggests that the impact of the Science Center might even be greater than indicated by the mostly self‐report data reported here. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 1–12, 2011