Increasing Equity and Access to the Sciences for Teachers and Young Latinx Children: Teachers' Perspectives

• In Event: Explorations of Early Childhood Education in Teacher Education

Abstract

he U.S. has a critical need for scientists from underrepresented communities to solve problems that disproportionately affect their communities. The Latinx community, the fastest growing segment of the US, is one such underrepresented group. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how the perceptions of early childhood practitioners teaching in low income, primarily Latinx communities changed regarding their ability to teach the natural sciences to young children after using a place-based, culturally sustaining framework designed to incorporate the natural world and privileging the home cultures and languages of the participants and their children. Results indicated educators’sense of self-efficacy as science learners and educators, comfort using the framework, and desire to continue using the framework increased.

Author

• Nanette S. Schonleber, Sonoma State University