Reversing the “standard” direction: Science emerging from the lives of African American students

Abstract

Recognizing the persistent science achievement gap between inner‐city African American students and students from mainstream, White society, this article suggests that the imposition of external standards on inner‐city schools will do little to ameliorate this gap because such an approach fails to address the significance of the social and cultural lives of the students. Instead, it is suggested that the use of critical ethnographic research would enable educators to learn from the students how science education can change to meet their aims and interests. The article includes a report on how a science lunch group in an inner‐city high school forged a community based on respect and caring and how this community afforded African American male teens the opportunity to participate in science in new ways. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 1000–1014, 2001

Beyond STS: A research-based framework for socioscientific issues education

“…Particular situations are, by definition, embedded in particular cultures and thus intertwined with particular relationships (Gruen, 1994;Plumwood, 1993). Recommendations that science education be grounded in local community issues (Aikenhead, 1997) and in students' interests (Calabrese Barton, 1998aBarton, , 1998bSeiler, 2001) draw on the conclusion that individual students create identities through experiences and perspectives shaped by a culturally diverse society. Here is where we find a link between feminist and cultural perspectives, as both sets of theorists recognize personal identity as "embedded in individual and social circumstances" (Kozoll & Osborne, 2004).…”

Creating a culture of academic success in an urban science and math magnet high school

“…Researchers have explored the issues surrounding improving science education in urban settings from a number of perspectives including a focus on student motivation, curricular innovation, resources and opportunity to learn, teacher qualifications and preparation, and the roll of standardized testing, among others. Specifically, recent research in urban science education that has influenced my thinking on the topic includes studies of how teachers may more successfully engage urban students in science using lenses such as a funds of knowledge approach (Hammond, 2001), a caring community model (Seiler, 2001), and a civil rights perspective (Tate, 2001). Hammond's (2001) attempts to work with students, teachers, parents, and other community members to promote a Mien-American intercultural science project grounded in a topic of natural significance to the community (in this case a community garden and attendant building) point to both the challenges and the potential of bringing together indigenous science, personal science, and Western modern science.…”

“…Similarly, Seiler's (2001) work with African American male high school students in a lunch time science group points to the potential of using student-emergent science curriculum as a way to teach both higher order thinking and social critique by grounding science content in the lived experiences and cultural histories of the students. As she described this work:…”

“…I desire to describe and document the possibility of creating a community involving urban Black male teens focused on science and an ethos of caring and respect. (Seiler, 2001(Seiler, , p. 1001 Seiler's work influenced my thinking about the education of African American students from backgrounds of poverty at CSM as I observed and interpreted teachers' attempts to set and maintain high academic standards. In some (but not all) cases, these standards were balanced by an ethos of caring and respect, a balance that seemed transformative for many students at CSM.…”

“…"Leaver" teachers were much more likely to apply a cultural deficit view to the students' lived experiences and much less likely to try to build on the students' strengths and experiences as a piece of what it meant to be an educated person. Seiler's (2001) attempt to form a caring community focused on science is an example of how science outside of the classroom setting can serve as both a venue for and an example of science teaching as social critique. While the model of the educated person produced at CSM rarely emphasized teaching science for social critique, the commitment of the school to long-term academic, social, and economic success for all its students (who were predominantly economically disadvantaged girls of color) can be seen as science teaching as social critique.…”