Science faculty conceptions of equity and their association to teaching practices

Abstract

Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their teaching and related practices. This study examined equity conceptions and reported teaching practices among 45 faculty members in a College of Sciences at a research intensive, historically White, public university in the United States. Thematic analysis showed that faculty conceptualized equity in three ways—“equality,” “inclusion,” or “justice”—and these conceptions were associated with instructor‐centered or student‐centered practices. Professors with “equality” conceptions of equity tended to report teaching mostly via lecture, while those with “inclusion” conceptions reported using active learning and/or inclusive teaching practices. Most professors with a “justice” conception went beyond active learning and inclusive practices to also include an emerging critical pedagogy. Conceptions of equity appear to inform how university science faculty see their roles in advancing equity in their classrooms. These findings provide a foundation for future research that seeks to support college science faculty's understandings of equity issues in higher education and the pedagogical practices necessary to ameliorate them.

Addressing Equity Asymmetries in General Chemistry Outcomes Through an Asset-Based Supplemental Course

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Theorizing science‐civic practices: Youth adaptation and remixing of scientific numeracies within digital civic media

“…For example, in the context of COVID‐19, Edward used scientific numeracies to advance an argument about combating racism and hate crimes. While several scholars have identified pervasive racism in science education structures (e.g., Cheuk, 2021; Russo‐Tait, 2023), made cogent calls to take up racism in the science classroom (e.g., Sheth, 2019), and shown how racism can serve as a foundational point of inquiry within innovative and justice‐oriented science curricula (e.g., Donovan et al, 2019; Morales‐Doyle, 2017), we still see racism as a topic addressed only infrequently in most science classrooms. We suspect that such infrequency stems from many sources, including—but certainly not limited to—widespread perception of inquiry around racism as not fulfilling current standards, given that it does not explicitly appear as a target idea (e.g., NGSS Lead States, 2013a).…”

Physics teachers’ conceptions of equity: Access and achievement

“…Studies such as Rodriguez et al (2012) have demonstrated how different framings of equity can result in different interpretations, influencing the research questions and the results that are found. Similarly, because teachers' beliefs and conceptions of equity impact their views of their roles in education and shape their practice (Buehl and Beck, 2015;Cochran-Smith et al, 2016;Russo-Tait, 2022), it is important to explicitly articulating one's equity definition while doing equity work. Regardless of its significance, teachers' various understanding of equity is still unclear in literature (See Bartell and Meyer, 2008;Jackson and Jong, 2017 for a few examples).…”