Commentary: Designing Science Instructional Materials that Contribute to More Just, Equitable, and Culturally Thriving Learning and Teaching in Science Education

Tzou, Carrie; Bang, Megan; Bricker, Leah A.

doi:10.1080/1046560x.2021.1964786

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the past 10 years, our field has made substantial progress in understanding what it means to develop equitable learning environments, complimenting and complicating views that focus on providing access and supporting science identities. Science researchers and educators are increasingly grappling with the need to expand what counts as science, examine histories and power structures that shape research, teaching, and learning; and to ask how science can be used toward communities' needs and questions (e.g., Philip & Azevedo, 2017; Tzou et al, 2021).…”

Section: Tensions and Concerns In The Current Efforts In Scientific M...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social and social science phenomena as well as interactions between the natural or engineered world and humans are other equity dimensions that are critical to people and science but often left out. Tzou et al (2021) show how history, connection and culture are essential parts of science and highlight the importance of "making choices about what questions to ask, which data to collect, and when and how to intervene in natural processes" when working toward socially just science teaching. Models and modeling could be used when making these choices, thus working toward socially just teaching.…”

Section: Make Modeling Equitablementioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving toward expansive, meaningful, and equitable modeling practice

2022

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Section: Tensions and Concerns In The Current Efforts In Scientific M...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Make Modeling Equitablementioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving toward expansive, meaningful, and equitable modeling practice

2022

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“…For example, as Nora and Carlos moved from a written representation of the guppies' ecosystem to a diagrammatic visual model, this brought into relief aspects of the ecosystem that they had not previously considered, such as the guppies' social behavior, the adequacy of their living space, and the importance of both factors for the health of the ecosystem as a whole (Pierson et al, 2021). In this way, multimodal translanguaging helped surface values, such as care and empathy, that became part of the class's collective ethical commitment (Pierson et al, 2022) despite falling outside of what has been normatively privileged in science (see Tzou et al, 2021 on the Learning in Places project). Together, these examples give a sense of the wealth of meaning‐making and sense‐making resources that students brought to their science learning and the potential of heterogeneity‐seeking learning designs (Pierson et al, 2022) for legitimizing these resources, especially in English‐dominant classrooms that have normatively privileged a much narrower set of resources (e.g., “academic English,” linguistic modality).…”

Section: Emerging Research In Science Education With Mlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science education with multilingual learners: Equity as access and equity as transformation

et al. 2023

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Research in science education with multilingual learners (MLs) has expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion can be situated within a larger dialogue about what it means to provide minoritized students with an equitable education. Whereas some conceptions of equity focus on ensuring all students have access to the knowledge, practices, and language normatively valued in K‐12 schools (equity as access), increasingly prominent conceptions focus on transforming those knowledge, practices, and language in ways that center minoritized students and their communities (equity as transformation). In this article, we argue that conceptions of equity provide a useful lens for understanding emerging research in science education with MLs and for charting a research agenda. We begin by tracing how conceptions of equity have evolved in parallel across STEM and multilingual education. Then, we provide an overview of recent developments from demographic, theoretical, and policy perspectives. In the context of these developments, we provide a conceptual synthesis of emerging research by our team of early‐career scholars in three areas: (a) learning, (b) assessment, and (c) teacher education. Within each area, we unpack the research efforts in terms of how they attend to equity as access while pushing toward equity as transformation. Finally, we propose a research agenda for science education with MLs that builds on and extends these efforts. We close by offering recommendations for making this research agenda coherent and impactful: (a) being explicit about our conceptions of equity, (b) paying attention to the interplay of structure and agency, and (c) promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

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“…Examining how justice‐oriented community‐driven STEAM is sustained requires attending to how different dimensions of programs work together to challenge injustice from a community perspective (Jurow & Shea, 2015; Star, 1999). This involves understanding how the people involved, histories of place, tools, and materials work together to develop the capacity of individuals and communities to identify and challenge injustices (Tzou et al, 2021). This is an ongoing process that requires examining the relations that comprise it.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrastructural injustices in community‐driven afterschool STEAM

Shea

Jurow

Schiffer³

et al. 2023

J Res Sci Teach

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This article offers a qualitative analysis of infrastructural in/justice in a community‐partnered design intervention focused on developing high‐tech low‐cost Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) projects. We examined the kinds of infrastructural injustices that were present in three afterschool programs and how it shaped STEAM education designs and opportunities for learning with technology to take hold. Combining insights and methods from studies of science and technology with Critical Race Theory, we developed the concept of infrastructural in/justice to illuminate the challenges of organizing STEAM for justice. Infrastructural injustices were identified at the level of dominant narratives that shaped the ideas, resources, and values that undergirded programming and pedagogical practices. We found that community educators were central to creating more just STEAM infrastructures. They drew out unjust infrastructural narratives, created counternarratives that allowed young people of color space to expand their technology and STEAM practices, and connected these practices to their everyday lives, identities, and emerging interests. We detail how working‐class community educators of color are dreaming and enacting new ways to engage with STEAM and STEAM education alongside young people. As we have shown, their ideas and practices combined with the young people's visions for the future challenged neoliberal and racialized narratives of STEAM. Despite community educators' of color critical expertise, their jobs remained precarious within informal STEAM infrastructures. To design for and sustain more just community‐driven STEAM activities we argue that the field must attend not only to how the work of infrastructuring to how community‐driven STEAM is done but also by whom. These activities, organized by community educators of color, must be valued and protected through the classification systems within informal STEAM infrastructures in order to design and sustain more just community‐driven STEAM initiatives.

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Commentary: Designing Science Instructional Materials that Contribute to More Just, Equitable, and Culturally Thriving Learning and Teaching in Science Education

Cited by 19 publications

References 8 publications

Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving toward expansive, meaningful, and equitable modeling practice

Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving toward expansive, meaningful, and equitable modeling practice

Science education with multilingual learners: Equity as access and equity as transformation

Infrastructural injustices in community‐driven afterschool STEAM

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