The Knowledge and Practices of High School Science Teachers in Pursuit of Cultural Responsiveness

Abstract

Scholars argue that bridging students’ backgrounds with canonical science is necessary for students of color by reducing incongruences between home and school and increasing the authenticity of science learning. However, science teachers often struggle with enacting culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP). This paper utilizes data from classroom observations, group interviews, and numerous program artifacts to describe four themes associated with the knowledge and practices of six high school life science teachers as they learned about and attempted to enact CRP while participating in a professional development program. These themes include views of students that changed from a focus on indirect experiences and emphasizing what students lacked to direct experiences and discussions of resources that they brought to the classroom; repositioning of students and teachers that was originally undetectable but moved to situating students as leaders with authoritative knowledge that constructed products together; community building that was done to promote interaction, learning, and give voice to students; and utilizing a CRP toolbox of responsive strategies and relevant topics to create bridges between students’ homes and school. At times, however, there was little connection to families’ funds of knowledge and sporadic critical consciousness raising. Implications for equitable science teacher development are discussed.

A metasynthesis of the complementarity of culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science education in K‐12 settings: Implications for advancing equitable science teaching and learning

“…Due to its highly personal nature (students often had limited access to healthier alternatives due to financial and geographic constraints), this investigation also allowed students to exercise solidarity while raising sociopolitical issues, such as inequitable access to dietary options and food security. This was similar to other studies in that the practice of Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information was often used for empowering purposes, such as identifying tips for healthy living for African Americans with sickle cell (e.g., Boutte, Kelly-Jackson, & Johnson, 2010) and developing a nutrition plan for people living with Type 2 diabetes based on knowledge of glucose regulation mechanisms in the body (e.g., Brown & Crippen, 2017). Instances like these were also coded as the Pedagogy category of culturally responsive instruction because they "buil[t] on [students'] existing cultural knowledge and 'cultural data sets'" (Powell et al, 2012, p. 8).…”

“…In other cases, students analyzed data and learned science content to better understand topics with sociopolitical connections, such as examining diseases prevalent in specific ethnic communities (e.g., Xu et al, ) and the prevalence of unhealthy fast food options available locally (e.g., Calabrese Barton & Tan, ). On fewer occasions, scientific practices and content were scrutinized as a way to name and challenge oppression—thereby emphasizing nature of science and science content exploration—such as when Anatomy and Physiology students explored phrenology as a pseudoscience (e.g., Brown & Crippen, ) and middle school students examined bias inherent in the scientific enterprise, such as Laughter and Adams’ () qualitative study of the culturally relevant practices of a science teacher:

In each class, Adams began with an introduction to and readings about bias in science…The readings examined how several scientists’ expectations of intelligence were biased by racial or gender factors, including Samuel Morton's measurements of skull volume and Lawrence Summer's comments about scientific aptitude differences between men and women. Adams wanted her students to understand how a scientist's individual and communal prejudices might lead to bias in a paradigm that purports objectivity; that is, as she often repeated, “Science is not biased but scientists are” (p. 1120).

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“…Thus, in addition to the inclusion criteria, each article was examined to ensure it contained evidence of at least two CRIOP pillars. Previously, I have used the CRIOP to examine preservice secondary science and mathematics teachers' attention to culturally responsive instructional elements in course artifacts (Brown & Crippen, 2016b) and to evaluate high school life science teachers' practices (Brown & Crippen, 2017).…”

“…In other cases, students analyzed data and learned science content to better understand topics with sociopolitical connections, such as examining diseases prevalent in specific ethnic communities (e.g., Xu et al, 2012) and the prevalence of unhealthy fast food options available locally (e.g., Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2009). On fewer occasions, scientific practices and content were scrutinized as a way to name and challenge oppression-thereby emphasizing nature of science and science content exploration-such as when Anatomy and Physiology students explored phrenology as a pseudoscience (e.g., Brown & Crippen, 2017) and middle school students examined bias inherent in the scientific enterprise, such as Laughter and Adams' (2012) qualitative study of the culturally relevant practices of a science teacher:…”

Messages in a Bottles: Valuable Insights from and by Researchers

“…The need for coherence between responsiveness and strategies is also central in the article by http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.21250/abstract (). Beginning with a condemnation of public education's failure to provide equally high quality learning outcomes for every student, these authors boldly engage with culturally relevant pedagogy by examining professional learning supports for practicing science teachers.…”