Engaging Science Counterstories to Support Justice-Oriented Science Teaching Goals

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Sociopolitical Perspectives on Math and Science Teaching and Teacher Education (Table 17)

Abstract

Critical science education scholars have called for explicitly engaging science teacher candidates (STCs) with realistic understandings of science as a way of knowing that has transformative possibilities and an enterprise that continues to perpetuate oppressions. To address challenges of supporting STCs in developing power-conscious science perspectives towards justice-oriented teaching goals, this critical qualitative inquiry examines the affordances and constraints of a Critical Science Book Club (CSBC). I engage counter-storytelling as pedagogy to analyze CSBC structure, practices, and outcomes. Findings show that CSBC revealed relevant science-specific majoritarian narratives, provided access to counterstories, and supported justice-oriented goals and stance-taking. The analysis illuminated that diversifying the counterstories, scaffolding systemic analyses of power, and confronting participants’ positional identities could provoke more critical praxis.

Author

• Manali J. Sheth, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author