Science Youth Action Research: A Curricular Framework and Instructional Approach to Promote Democratic Citizenship

• In Event: Leaning In: Learning From Frameworks for Science Education

Abstract

This conceptual piece introduces Science Youth Action Research (Sci-YAR) as a curricular framework and instructional approach and argues for its potential to promote youth’s participation as citizens in a democratic society. This work highlights and explains Sci-YAR’s key features, offering it as a model for facilitating not only youth’s development of science content knowledge and process skills, but also the use of these knowledge and skills to bring about personal and social transformation. Moreover, it argues for Sci-YAR’s potential to help youth construct views of themselves as agents who can use science as a tool and a context to take action in their own lives and communities, thereby enhancing their participation as democratic citizens.

Author

• Elizabeth Coleman, University of North Carolina - Charlotte