An Enactment of Critical Participatory Action Research for Science Teachers and Students

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 8

Abstract

In this presentation I propose the introduction of critical participatory action research (CPAR) methodologies for both preservice and inservice science teacher preparation. When teachers bring CPAR into their classrooms as a vision of public science, it can provide opportunities to engage students in critical transdisciplinary science learning. Critical transdisciplinary STEM inherently situates classroom content in local communities, addressing environmental and social justice issues relevant to children and youth.

I begin with an introduction to Critical Participatory Action Research as a potential tool to (1) address the shortcomings and gaps created by STEM’s very limited and colonizing curriculum and (2) support preservice and inservice teachers’ abilities to engage students in public science, an area that is often lacking in conventional STEM education. Historically, CPAR has taken place in the public sphere, including diverse contexts like schools, prisons, and community organizations. In these spaces, academics interested in CPAR, like the Public Science Project, facilitate and collaborate with stakeholders directly to co-create knowledge. Expanding on this is an opportunity for teachers in teacher education programs to utilize CPAR epistemology and methodologies in action research projects with students as legitimate forms of science teaching and learning. As such, this paper adapts the essential assumptions of CPAR as outlined by The Public Science Project (Torres, 2009) towards formal learning institutions, demonstrating the intersection and possibility of action research and critical pedagogies ability to embrace a critical transdisciplinary approach to STEM education.

I will share how CPAR was introduced and utilized by a group of New York City public school teachers in a science teacher action research course.. I will highlight five CPAR projects that teachers conducted with their students in science classrooms, each aimed at addressing local issues important to youth. Reflections on the process of implementing CPAR in science classrooms revealed the power of conducting research with youth, the deep assumptions science teachers in particular hold about the “right to research” (Appadurai, 2006), and the challenges that conducting CPAR presents in the conventional science classroom. Additionally, teachers who embrace CPAR in their classrooms can develop projects with students that illustrate the deep connectedness between diverse people(s) and communities, exemplifying how a critical place-based pedagogy enhances and reimagines science teaching.

The focus of this presentation on CPAR with in-service teachers in a teacher education program speaks directly to what it means to be a science educator in our current era of global science education reform highlighting both the obstacles and advantages of critical work in classrooms. Through a critical transdisciplinary lens, I attempt to provide one possible vision to the larger question of what it means to be a next generation science educator, shedding light on the ways that CPAR can incorporate the social, cultural, epistemological, ontological, linguistic, personal, and moral dimensions of learning science into science education.

Author

• Marissa E Bellino, The College of New Jersey