Race in Ideological Practice in Biology Teaching

• In Event: Race and STEM Education

Abstract

To disrupt and dismantle existing inequities in STEM, it is important to understand how racism shapes science teaching and learning. An emerging body of research demonstrates that science teachers have a range of definitions of race and racism and often struggle to see how issues of power impact science teaching and learning. In this research, I engage a critical race theory analysis of biology teaching to elucidate tensions in biology teachers’ ideological practices of race in line with professional science teaching contexts that, despite the best intentions, reproduce racial subordination. Race organized science teaching and learning across three dimensions: Goals, achievement narratives, and curricular relevance. Although participants understood that inequities shaped the academic and life opportunities of students of color, the definitions of race and racism that they deployed in-practice replicated racial subordination rather than critical race consciousness. The constraints were mediated by the dominant professional contexts of science education.

Author

• Manali Sheth, University of Illinois Chicago