Secondary Science Teaching Toward Critical Race Science Consciousness

• In Event: Imagining a Just Future: The Generative Possibilities of Critical Race Theory for Classroom Practice

Abstract

Purposes and Framework
Race-evasive ideologies drive science teaching practices that devalue student of color experiences and contributions as a part of science learning (Hurtado, 2008; Parsons & Dorsey, 2015; Sheth, 2019), disconnect them from scientific histories of communities of color (Brown, 2012; Prescod-Weinstein, 2021), and turn them into tools of the U.S. scientific enterprise (Mutegi, 2011). This paper offers insights from experiences, research, and praxis to illuminate how CRT-informed science teaching can support students of color in exploring more expansive relationships between themselves, science, and antiracist struggles such that learning science becomes central, rather than peripheral, to pursuits of justice. Race-evasive ideologies drive science teaching practices that devalue student of color experiences and contributions as a part of science learning (Hurtado, 2008; Parsons & Dorsey, 2015; Sheth, 2019), disconnect them from scientific histories of communities of color (Brown, 2012; Prescod-Weinstein, 2021), and turn them into tools of the U.S. scientific enterprise (Mutegi, 2011). This paper offers insights from experiences, research, and praxis to illuminate how CRT-informed science teaching can support students of color in exploring more expansive relationships between themselves, science, and antiracist struggles such that learning science becomes central, rather than peripheral, to pursuits of justice.

By using critical race theory in education’s (CRTE) tenets of critical race consciousness (Carter, 2008) and counter-storytelling (Solórzano & Yosso, 2001), science educators can scaffold students in interrogating dominant narratives and practices in science and science education, recognizing the centrality of people of color in science, and defining the relationship they want to have with science.

These CRTE principles enable science teachers to pursue conceptual and practice learning objectives delineated by NGSS while supporting students of color in challenging racist narratives, policies, and practices that constrain purposeful engagement with science. Developing a critical race science consciousness opens up possibilities for teachers and students to take up understandings of science as a human endeavor that is implicated in racism and holds potential for transformative justice (Nasir, 2013). A counter-storytelling framework (Terry, Sr., 2011; Mensah, 2019) supports students in understanding representations and experiences of science and science learning as racialized so that they are empowered to make intentional decisions about how science achievement relates to personal and collective justice goals.
Results

Results & Significance
I illuminate the generative possibilities of discipline-specific CRTE principles--critical race science consciousness and science counter-storytelling—for secondary and post-secondary contexts with illustrative reflection activities, scientists’ stories, and topic-specific curricular arcs.

Word Count: 400

Author

• Manali J. Sheth, University of Illinois at Chicago