The Color-Line in U.S. Science Education Reforms: Implications of Liberalism and Hope for Emancipation

• In Event: The Educational Possibilities of Truth-Telling: Dismantling Dominant Narratives of Race, Place, and Histories

Abstract

This paper conducts a critical content analysis of four national science education reform documents from 1991-2012. While equity and diversity become more prominent goals in science education throughout this time, we must consider the influence liberalism has on these reforms to better understand k-12 science classrooms and outcomes of students of color. Using a critique of liberalism framing, we examine the prevalence of sanitization and dispossession across the reforms and counter instances of emancipatory pedagogical approaches that challenge social inequities within science education. Our analysis reveals how the reforms remain ambivalent to the needs and experiences of racially minoritized youth, and function as a mechanism for race-neutral ideologies rather than racial justice, except when the outcomes converge with liberal interests.

Authors

• Curtis O'Dwyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Ryan Hassemer, Verona Area School District