Understanding the science experiences of successful women of color: Science identity as an analytic lens

In this study, we develop a model of science identity to make sense of the science experiences of 15 successful women of color over the course of their undergraduate and graduate studies in science and into science‐related careers. In our view, science identity accounts both for how women make meaning of science experiences and how society structures possible meanings. Primary data included ethnographic interviews during students' undergraduate careers, follow‐up interviews 6 years later, and ongoing member‐checking. Our results highlight the importance of recognition by others for women in the three science identity trajectories: research scientist; altruistic scientist; and disrupted scientist. The women with research scientist identities were passionate about science and recognized themselves and were recognized by science faculty as science people. The women with altruistic scientist identities regarded science as a vehicle for altruism and created innovative meanings of “science,” “recognition by others,” and “woman of color in science.” The women with disrupted scientist identities sought, but did not often receive, recognition by meaningful scientific others. Although they were ultimately successful, their trajectories were more difficult because, in part, their bids for recognition were disrupted by the interaction with gendered, ethnic, and racial factors. This study clarifies theoretical conceptions of science identity, promotes a rethinking of recruitment and retention efforts, and illuminates various ways women of color experience, make meaning of, and negotiate the culture of science. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1187–1218, 2007     

Coherence,contradiction, and the development of school science identities

This study demonstrates the potential for collaborative research among participants in local settings to effect positive change in urban settings characterized by diversity. It describes an interpretive case study of a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse eighth grade science classroom in an urban magnet school in order to explore why some of the students did not achieve at high levels and identify with school science although they were both interested in and knowledgeable about science. The results of this study indicated that structural issues such as the school's selection process, the discourses perpetuated by teachers, administrators, and peers regarding “who belongs” at the school, and negative stereotype threat posed obstacles for students by highlighting rather than mitigating the inequalities in students' educational backgrounds. We explore how a methodology based on the use of cogenerative dialogues provided some guidance to teachers wishing to alter structures in their classrooms to be more conducive to all of their students developing identities associated with school science. Based on the data analysis, we also argue that a perspective on classrooms as communities of practice in which learning is socially situated rather than as forums for competitive displays, and a view of students as valued contributors rather than as recipients of knowledge, could address some of the obstacles. Recommendations include a reduced emphasis on standardized tasks and hierarchies, soliciting unique student contributions, and encouraging learning through peripheral participation, thereby enabling students to earn social capital in the classroom. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1209–1228, 2010     

Resisting the marginalization of science in an urban school: Coactivating social,cultural, material,and strategic resources

This study describes the resources and strategies middle school teachers, urban fellows, and a district science staff developer coactivated to resist the marginalization of science in a high‐poverty, low‐performing urban school. Through critical narrative inquiry, I document factors that marginalized science in three teachers' classrooms. The narratives show that constraints related to cultural, material, and social resources contributed to a more global symbolic resource constraint, the low status and priority of science in the school. The narratives develop a new category of strategic resources embodied or controlled by others and leveraged to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Attention to a broader array of resources, including social, symbolic, and strategic resources, helps to excavate some of the inertial forces that might derail efforts to teach for social justice. The findings provide a sense of how and why teachers might activate resources to resist the marginalization of science in their classrooms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:840–860, 2010     

Globalization of the economy: The implications for education and skill formation

In conclusion The globalization of the economy offers enormous possibilities, but in return demands significant modifications in production behaviour and training policies. Individual countries will have to make hard choices to achieve, in a rapidly changing world economy, both international competitiveness and national welfare. Original language: English Wadi D. Haddad (United States of America) Deputy Secretary, World Bank. Special Adviser to the Director-General of UNESCO on development issues, representative to the financial institutions in Washington and to the academic and development community in the United States. Ph.D. in physics and education from the University of Wisconsin. After a career as a university professor and director of research in Lebanon, Mr Haddad first entered the World Bank in 1976. He was subsequently chief adviser to the President of Lebanon (1982–84), and worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington (1984). He rejoined the World Bank in 1987 and, in 1989, was appointed Executive Secretary of the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien). He is the author of many books and articles on public policy, human resource development and science.     

Learning contexts,black Cultural Ethos,and the science achievement of African American students in an urban middle school

As other countries vigorously promote rapid advancement in science, optimizing the participation of all students in the United States in science is imperative. This study focused on African American students and examined their science achievement in relation to Black Cultural Ethos (BCE), a construct rooted in psychology. Via qualitative and quantitative data obtained from a non‐random control group design, the study addressed three questions: (1) With respect to BCE, what characterizes the natural instructional contexts of two middle school science teachers? (2) What characterizes the achievement of African American students in contexts that incorporate BCE and contexts that do not? (3) What achievement patterns, if any, exist in BCE and non‐BCE instructional contexts? With regard to the natural contexts, the teachers did not incorporate BCE even when the opportunities were available to do so. Within these non‐BCE contexts, the group's mean scores on the study‐specific test that aligned with instruction decreased from pretest to posttest with approximately one‐third of the students' scores improving. When a context was altered with a moderate effect size of 0.47 to include BCE, the group's mean scores on the aforementioned test increased from pretest to posttest with two‐thirds of the students' scores improving. An illustration of the interplay between BCE and context and a consideration of the interplay as a mediating factor in research involving African American students encapsulate the significance and implications of the study's findings. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 665–683, 2008     

中央政府与社会教育:理学教育的视角

社会教育由于其在社会治理与发展中的重要作用而被人们所重视。理学教育家也极为关注社会教育问题,对于如何推行社会教育进行了诸多的思考与探索。理学教育家认为,在社会教育的网络体系中,中央政府处于最高的决策与管理地位,发挥着非常重要的作用。对于中央政府如何确定自身在国家社会教育中的地位并充分发挥其作用,理学教育家提出了一些很有价值的建议。     

台湾中小学的理科教育

本对台湾中小学教育的现状、理科课程、理科教学、师资等情况作了概括性介绍，也表达了作的基本认识。     

Globalization and science education in a community-based after-school program

What are the effects of globalization and how are these manifested in local communities and in the learning of science there? These questions are unpacked within one local community in the United States, a place called “Uptown” where I examine the educational opportunities and pathways in science that are available for low-income Black American girls. The data comes from eight years of work both as an after-school science education program director and researcher in Uptown. The results suggest that globalization is taking hold, both in the social and economic circumstances of the community and in the everyday lives of the girls who live there. Further, there is possible evidence of globalization in the micro-dynamics of the after-school program. Yet opportunities for science education that could prepare the girls and their community for a globalizing world lag far behind.     

Risk and school science education

In this paper I consider a role for risk understanding in school science education. Grounds for this role are described in terms of current sociological analyses of the contemporary world as a ‘risk society’ and recent public understanding of science studies where science and risk are concerns commonly linked within the wider community. These concerns connect with support amongst many science educators for the goal of science education for citizenship. From this perspective scientific literacy for decision making on contemporary socioscientific issues is central. I argue that in such decision making, risk understanding has an important role to play. I examine some of the challenges its inclusion in school science presents to science teachers, review previous writing about risk in the science education literature and consider how knowledge about risk might be addressed in school science. I also outline the varying conceptions of risk and suggest some future research directions that would support the inclusion of risk in classroom discussions of socioscientific issues.     

Women and science education in Cameroon: Some critical reflections

Ten Cameroonian women were interviewed in order to find out how they had managed to become scientists and science educators. We talked to them about the kinds of support they had been given by their families, how science was taught in schools both in the past and at present, and whether or not they thought it possible to integrated science and African traditional thought in schools and universities. We used a framework incorporating the concepts of gender and social class in order to interpret their views. On this basis, we understood why these women tended to underestimate the importance of institutional discrimination in science and to conceive of the norms of professionalism as unsurpassable. In contrast, we suggest that women in Cameroon will only be able to participate fully when their own experience and ways of knowing are incorporated into the teaching and structures of science.     

An analysis of the processes of change in two science teachers educators' thinking

This study examined the processes of change in thinking as a means of learning about the professional development of two science teacher educators. A qualitative methodology was used. The main research tool was a semistructured in‐depth interview. The primary data analyzed came from two science teacher educators, selected from a broader set of seven. Findings emphasize the importance of questions regarding the knowledge possessed by teacher educators and of the questions regarding the role of science teacher educators. That is, the knowledge of an expert science teacher educator was more than a list of givens; it was personal and context‐bound. This study contributes new insight into the processes of teacher educators' professional development and change in their thinking. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1219–1245, 2007     

地方政府与社会教育--理学教育的视角

在封建国家,对于地方社会教育的推行来说,地方政府无疑是最为关键性的力量,它甚至决定着地方社会教育的状况。集教育家与地方官吏为一身的中国古代理学教育家,对地方政府如何推行地方社会教育进行了诸多的思考并总结了许多成功的经验,对研究当今如何充分发挥地方政府在地方社会教育中的作用有重要的启迪意义。     

Learning from each other: what social studies can learn from the controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution in science

This article addresses the need for researchers to move beyond discipline-specific approaches to research and practice and offers an example of how interdisciplinary understandings can increase knowledge in respective disciplines. The specific focus of the article is the shared challenges of broaching controversy in science and social studies classrooms. Although there is much that social studies teachers can learn about the teaching of controversial public issues from the challenges science educators face in teaching evolutionary theory, and vice versa, the two literature bases have little overlap. Through this example of broaching curricular controversy in the classroom, the author argues that content instruction can be improved by increasing awareness of research and practice in other disciplines.     

Educating science teachers in the twenty-first century: implications for pre-service teacher education

Abstract

This study examines the verbal interactions among a group of pre-service teachers as they engaged in scientific discussions in a medicinal chemistry course. These discussions were part of the course that encompassed an explicit instruction of scientific argumentation structures as well as an applied component, whereby the pre-service teachers learned the content of medicinal chemistry through cases developed using the strategy of competing theories. By adopting a case study approach using sociocultural framework of learning, we examined the interactions between the pre-service teachers using video data. We describe 12 possible forms of interactions during discussions – (1) seeking clarification, (2) figuring out loud, (3) sharing information, (4) agreement, (5) asking questions, (6) providing explanations, (7) raising strategic and procedural issues, (8) stating claims, (9) disagreement, (10) sharing perspectives, (11) offering alternatives, and (12) persuasion. The pre-service teachers engaged in figuring out aloud and seeking clarifications frequently, and used persuasion least in their discussions. To clarify their ideas and thoughts, pre-service teachers commonly rebut their counterparts and used warrants to support their own assertions. A similar pattern was also observed when figuring their thoughts out loud. Our findings suggest that pre-service teachers were able to carry out rebuttals in the argumentation process. However, the quality and function of their rebuttals can be improved by deepening their understanding of the subject matter knowledge and the science argumentation structure. Implications are discussed.