Education Commons^™

Est-Afet: Telling Tales From The Urban Science Classroom, Joy Barnes-Johnson

Joy Barnes-Johnson

The need to study equitable science teaching practices is exacerbated in urban schools for multiple reasons. Equitable science teaching encompasses many different yet related discourses, each operating with their own strengths and limitations. These streams of discourse originate from education reform models, teacher education reforms, science teaching reforms, science learning initiatives and general models of best practice in STEM education. Minority-serving communities, especially those serving children of African descent, have found it difficult to embrace these for-all initiatives (Mutegi, 2011). Cultural, social and political belief systems at odds with reform models have constrained essentialist perspectives and perhaps commonly held views …