“No Justice, No Peace”: A Racial Reckoning for Science Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Science education researchers have been talking about equity and justice for decades (Rodriguez, 1998; Tate, 2001; Walls, 2016), and some research has focused on underserved communities including racially minoritized students. However, science education research continues to evade opportunities to tackle race and racial (in)justice head-on. Mensah and Bianchini (2023) updated Parsons’ (2014) critical synthesis of race and ethnicity in science education research, finding that frameworks like intersectionality and critical race theory are increasing, but race remains undertheorized across the discipline. In this session, early career scholars harness the momentum of the 2020 “racial reckoning,” which arguably reduced a potential movement to a moment, and question the possibilities for science education to advance racially just education.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Science Teaching and Learning

Chair

• Curtis O'Dwyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• “Efficiency Isn’t the Only Important Thing:" Racialized Contours of Justice in an NGSS Case Study - Curtis O'Dwyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Raciolinguistic Hierarchies in Bilingual Science Education: The Role of ‘Messages’ Teachers Receive - Cynthia T. Baeza, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Sista STEM Circles: Cultivating Black Girl Brilliance in STEM - Miranda M. Allen, Texas Tech University

• “It’s Just Skin Color with a Tiny Disadvantage:" Understanding How Children of Color Discuss Race - Terrance Burgess, Michigan State University

• Practicing Science Teachers (Discussing and Evading) Race Talk - Hannah Cooke, University of Connecticut

Discussant

• Daniel Morales-Doyle, University of Illinois at Chicago