Meeting Their Fullest Potential: The Beliefs and Teaching of a Culturally Relevant Science Teacher

Abstract

As elementary and middle school children of color continue to score poorly on science standardized tests, culturally relevant teaching has been shown to be an effective approach to addressing the social and academic needs of students from diverse backgrounds. In this article, we illustrate how the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy is embraced in the teaching beliefs of a sixth grade science teacher in a rural, low socioeconomic, predominantly African American school. The findings from a qualitative case study reveal beliefs and teaching practices consistent with three major tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy: conceptions of self and students; social relations; and perceptions of knowledge (Ladson-Billings, 2009). This study builds upon the culturally relevant pedagogy knowledge base by illustrating the tenets of this theory in the beliefs and teaching practices of a sixth grade science teacher

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

“…Classroom Relationships should be equitable and productive in all science classrooms, not just those that exemplify cultural relevance. What made these particular relationships reflective of CRP, however, was that there were often group and individual goals for success that promoted a collectivist, “family‐like” environment (e.g., Mensah, ; Patchen & Cox‐Petersen, ), patterns of interaction demonstrated by the teacher that were determined to be culturally congruent with students’ and families’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds (e.g., Chigeza, ; O. Lee, ), and student groups that purposefully supported one another's learning in ways that assured success for all (e.g., Kelly‐Jackson & Jackson, ). As a result, culturally responsive classroom relationships were often noted alongside inquiry‐based practices such as Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information as referred to in this passage reported by Carlone et al () in their ethnographic study:

In countless ways, Ms. Wolfe held students accountable for critically listening to and jointly constructing knowledge with their partners in small groups and whole groups.

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“…When present, this practice coincided with explicit CRP practices (7% of all coded excerpts, present with CRIOP pillars 62 times) most often around Discourse , Classroom Relationships , and Curriculum (refer to Figure ). In addition, the inquiry‐based practices Analyzing and Interpreting Data (e.g., O. Lee, ; Lim & Calabrese Barton, ), Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions (e.g., Kelly‐Jackson & Jackson, ), and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information (e.g., Nashon & Anderson, ) were exclusively linked with this practice. Meaning that, when present in culturally responsive science education studies, Engaging in Argument from Evidence was observed with only these other science and engineering practices.…”

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

“…By demanding a higher level of academic success for the entire class, individual success did not suffer” (p. 480). By fostering community building in the classroom (Kelly‐Jackson & Jackson, ), teachers attempted to create respectful and inclusive science learning environments where multiple perspectives were acknowledged (Johnson, ).…”

“…Consistent with Gay's () initial emphasis on curriculum, research on culturally responsive science education has primarily focused on the inclusion of indigenous‐ and culturally specific knowledge in the official curriculum (e.g., Lewthwaite & McMillan, ) but has also been used to examine professional development programs (e.g., Roehrig, Dubosarsky, Mason, Carlson, & Murphy, ). Consistent with Ladson‐Billings’ (, ) original focus, much of the work to date on culturally relevant teaching practices has centered on pre‐ and in‐service science teachers’ beliefs about the importance of attending to culture in the science classroom (Atwater, Freeman, Butler, & Draper‐Morris, ), practices in the science classroom (Kelly‐Jackson & Jackson, ), and supports provided when designing culturally relevant lessons (Mensah, ). However, pockets of research have examined critical consciousness‐ and cultural competence building in students (Tsurusaki et al., ) and the degree to which indigenous students’ experiences are included in the classroom (Nam et al., ).…”

Illuminating political clarity in culturally relevant science instruction

“…Still missing are clear pedagogical examples that make real on science for all claims (Gutiérrez & Barton, ; Johnson, ; Varelas et al, ). For researchers, such examples offer an opportunity to study how science teachers implement CRP in their classrooms and to identify effective strategies for utilizing CRP in science (Kelly‐Jackson & Jackson, ; Mensah, ; Parsons & Carlone, ). Without question, this study requires an understanding of schools as complex, culturally dynamic and fluid sites (Nasir & Hand, ) wherein teachers are cultural and political workers whose CRP mindsets often get “negotiated in the context of social interactions” (Ye, Varelas, & Guajardo, , p. 873).…”