Underprivileged urban mothers' perspectives on science

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to report our findings from a qualitative study intended to develop our understandings of how inner‐city mothers perceive science. Using qualitative methodologies, our analysis reveals that the mothers' perceptions can be grouped into four categories: perceptions of science as (a) schoolwork/knowledge, (b) fun projects, (c) a tool for maintaining the home and family, and (d) an untouchable domain. After we present these categories we compare our findings across categories to argue that those mothers who had spent time doing science with their children were more likely to have a more personal, dynamic, and inquiry‐based view of science. We also argue that mothers' perceptions of science were more dynamic when they spoke about situations and contexts that were familiar to them, such as food, nutrition, and child care. We conclude the article with a discussion of the implications our findings have for science education reform. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 688–711, 2001

Parents' Attitudes Towards Science and their Children's Science Achievement

“…Parental involvement can take the form of direct participation in science activities inside the home such as hands-on science projects and simple science experiments or library, science centre and museum visits (Barton et al, 2001;Sun et al, 2012). Parents can also provide indirect support at home in the form of supervising homework, buying more books on scientific discovery and science fiction and encouraging their children to watch television programmes on science (Ho, 2010;Sun et al, 2012).…”

“…Similarly, Tare et al (2011) noted that parents' views on the importance of understanding evolution were positively correlated with the educational quality of the museum visit (in terms of duration and reasoning provided by parents). Barton et al (2001) conducted a qualitative analysis of how underprivileged urban mothers perceive science. They found that mothers who tend to view science as fun projects and activities and talked about science as dynamic and personal were more likely to be involved in science activities and projects in the home rather than mothers who disliked science and created boundaries between themselves and science.…”

Turkish adaptation of questionnaire on attitudes towards engineers and scientists

“…In these studies, several social and cultural factors were found to be effective on student attitudes towards engineers and scientists. These factors include; the living environment and parents (Barton, Hindin, Contento, Trudeau, Yang, Hagiwara, & Koch, 2001;Schnabel, Alfeld, Eccles, Köller, & Baumert, 2002); teachers and peers in schools (Lee 2002); and various media sources and popular culture (Long, Boiarsky, & Thayer 2001;Steinke & Long, 1996;Steinke, 2005).…”

Designing for Family Science Explorations Anytime, Anywhere

“…For many families these supports are largely missing or forgotten, especially in regard to resources that are exploratory, inquiry based, and build on family practices. There is an impression that science is a "high-culture" subject with formal processes and theories that are best left to the expertise of schools, which results in a lack of engagement by families in exploring scientific inquiry (Brown, 2006; Calabrese Barton et al, 2001).…”

“…Despite some best efforts in informal science education, many families report that their science learning experiences have reinforced the views that science is complicated and out of their reach (e.g., Calabrese Barton et al, 2001). Thus, many informal science education efforts fail to reach a diverse set of families, and families do not realize that spontaneous investigation or experimentation in their everyday activities overlaps with the fundamental practices of science.…”