Analyzing Teachers’ Conceptions at the Intersection of Nature of Science and Culturally Relevant Science Teaching

• In Event: Supporting Teachers and Students Toward Scientific Literacies In Meaningful Contexts

Abstract

Teaching students about the Nature of Science and engaging them in Culturally Relevant Science Teaching require critical shifts away from traditional science. Are teachers making these shifts? Do they conceive of science in these anti-traditional ways? To explore these broad questions, I created a conceptual framework detailing traditional and anti-traditional conceptions around five key science topics: 1. Revision/Static; 2. Scientific Method; 3. Objective/Subjective; 4. Society and Culture; and 5. Critical Space. This allowed me to critically analyze 20 science teachers’ discourse to determine their ideology. I found that participants demonstrated alignment with the anti-traditional conceptions when it came to the first two topics, however, when it came to the latter 3 topics tensions arose and there was noticeably less consensus.

Author

• Britney L. Jones, Fairfield University