Teaching Science in Diverse Settings: Marginalized Discourses and Classroom Practice

The essays in this book draw from current debates concerning schooling and the need for liberatory education, the social construction of science and of identity, and systems of race, class, and gender oppression and domination. These works force us to confront such questions as, How can we shape practice and curriculum to address the needs of diverse learners? In what ways do the marginalized discourses in theory and practice push us to fundamentally reformulate our conceptions of teachers/teaching, students/learning, and subject matter knowledge (science and what it means to know and do science) and the multiple relationships between and among these domains? In what ways do the marginalized discourses in theory and practice push us to fundamentally reformulate our conceptions of «science for all?» What it really means, in the day-to-day practice of teachers, to enact more liberating pedagogies? This collection serves to educate readers about the importance, history, and possibilities for marginalized discourses in science education and also to engage readers in multiple cases where contributors have systematically applied and examined what happens when these theoretical frames are brought to bear in classroom practice (K-12 science and science teacher education).