Educating science teachers for the sociocultural diversity of urban schools

Abstract

This interpretive study of the preparation of science teachers for urban high schools explored the extent to which learning to teach was facilitated by the methods courses, cooperating teachers and university supervisors. Because the methods course was minimally effective in addressing the needs of teaching low track students from conditions of poverty the methods instructor, Tobin, decided to be a teacher-researcher with such students. He joined Smith, a student teacher and Seiler, a doctoral student, in an investigation that examined learning to teach in a graduate teacher preparation program. In an endeavour to gain a first hand grasp on the challenges of teaching African American students placed in a low track program of study the three authors of this paper co=taught science in an urban high school. The paper incorporates rich perspectives gained from the teacher-researchers and theoretical frameworks associated with resistance, habitus and learning to teach by co-teaching. The paper advocates co-teaching as an essential component of teacher education programs. IntroducationIn the conflict between theory and practice tha~t the college and school site represent, teacher preparation belongs more in the domain of theory and the purview of the college. As many public school teachers acknowledge when they return to college for additional coursework, the ivory tower does isolate its inhabitants, but it can give them a perspective that is restorative in its idealism. Prospective teachers, especially those who will work with poor, minority students under conditions that reinforce failure, need to have the "ideal," which they see little of in urban schools, emphasised in their preparation, to gird them against the "real," which they see and hear far too much of when they teach. (Weiner, 1993, p . I33).The citation from Weiner is problematic even though there are elements of common sense in what she asserts. Unless student teachers learn to teach in urban schools how can they expect to know how to teach in such settings when they graduate and seek employment? We regard knowledge of teaching as something that is enacted. What can be written and spoken about essentially have a different character than knowledge of teaching. Being able to write about how to teach in urban schools or having read key theoretical and empirical works about teaching and learning in urban schools are no guarantee that a prospective teacher will teach successfully. Furthermore, learning to teach in a suburban or high track class may not provide the experience from which a person can learn to teach students from low track classes. We regard field experiences in a variety of urban placements as essential in the process of learning to teach in urban schools as well as experiencing alternative images of what is possible in the best schools and deep exposure to theories that can enlighten those experiences. The link between theory and practice has been a site for dispute for as long as there have been teacher education programs. Now there is...

“life's first need is for us to be realistic” and other reasons for examining the sociocultural construction of race in the science performance of African American students

“…I ascribe the label “invisibility” to this literature because in this work the science education of African Americans is obfuscated by use of demographic labels that equate “African American”‐ness with alternative (and sometimes inaccurate) demographic characteristics, such as “urban”‐ness or “minority”‐ness. Among this literature is work that misrepresents African American populations as “urban,” “inner city,” “minority,” “at‐risk,” “underrepresented,” or “underprivileged” (e.g., Atwater, Wiggins, & Gardner, 1995; Brickhouse & Potter, 2001; Carmichael & Sevenair, 1991; Elmesky, 2011; Emdin, 2009; Thomas, 1986; Tobin, Seiler, & Smith, 1999). So we often find researchers speaking of “urban” schools or “minority” students when the schools and students under investigation are largely African American.…”

Autobiography and the paradox of change: (Dis)locating ourselves in the process

“…Some recent work in science education seems to suggest that one of the most important questions has yet to be asked: Is the referent for the science to be taught appropriate for engaging all as the title of the AAAS (1989) report Science for all Americans: Project 2061 appears to achieve? Thus, it has been suggested that "science for all" has to be reframed (at least in some context) so that it is appropriate for students in poverty and destitute homing projects (Barton, 1998;Tobin, Seiler, & Smith, 1999). Another suggestion is to deinstitutionalise science education and to make it part of the local community where students contribute their part to the overall environmental activities (Roth & McGinn, 1997).…”

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