Culturally relevant pedagogies in science education as a response to global migration

Abstract

Largescale movement of diverse groups of people continue to redefine the demographics of an increasing number of societies all around the world. Global migration has an impact on education as the shift in ethnic demographics profiles comes with dramatic demographic shifts in the student population worldwide as well. Situated within these current geosociopolitical realities, in this position paper we argue for the urgency of culturally relevant pedagogies as a response to the challenge of meeting the needs of increasingly diverse and multicultural science classrooms. In doing so, we first provide a definition of culturally relevant pedagogies alongside a historical overview of how the term has been framed and utilized in science education over the past two decades. Following on these theoretical underpinnings, we synthesize the findings of contemporary empirical research studies that are situated both in and out-of-school contexts. In doing so, we aim to respond to the question of what might be the value of adopting CRP in science education? As the synthesis of related literature shows, there exists a strong relation between CRP and multiple kinds of benefits related to students’ engagement in science, both in out-of-school and in school contexts. These benefits include the three tenets of CRP: increasing academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Other benefits refer to increasing students’ interest in science, motivation and engagement as well as self-identification with science. We end the paper by offering recommendations for future research based on identified gaps in existing knowledge base.

Acquisition of naïve and scientific conceptions: How linguistic context matters in Singaporean children’s understanding of “animal”

“…Beyond the Singaporean classroom, the present findings may also find use in a more careful consideration of pedagogy in increasingly diverse classrooms due to globalization and global migration (cf. Marosi et al, 2021).…”

Non-formal Science Education: Moving Towards More Inclusive Pedagogies for Diverse Classrooms

“…The DiSSI project is specifically oriented towards building a pedagogical repertoire for science education challenges in contemporary societies that are marked by various forms of diversity as a result of globalisation and international immigration. The social and political consequences of these developments for science education have been theorised in various ways and from various perspectives (Carter et al, 2017;Marosi et al, 2021). In our study, we have focused on three conceptual pathways that are interlinked via a common theme of diversity to guide our research and analysis.…”

From TPACK to DPACK: The “Digitality-Related Pedagogical and Content Knowledge”-Model in STEM-Education

“…Big 8 of Diversity Management) must be considered when designing learning processes. Wetzel et al [57] list frameworks addressing this area, showing that this field is not new (e.g., Ladson-Billings [66], dealing with culturally relevant pedagogy, or Marosi et al [67], defining culturally responsive pedagogy in science education), although the focus of the model has not been on this area to date. An easy-to-understand example is the possible impact of fasting during Ramadan on student performance, which must be considered when planning lessons.…”