Equity and Science Education Reform
Sharon J. Lynch
Preface
This is a volume for science educators, including idealists and exacting pragmatists, who are dedicated to exploring what it means to put into practice rallying cries like "science literacy for all," "equity and excellence," and "standards based reform." It acknowledges that those who work with diverse populations of K-12 students require something beyond good intentions and slogans. This volume takes a hard look at science education reform efforts and the issues it raises for learners who differ along gender, socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural, linguistic lines, or disability status. It invites the best thinking of the teachers, administrators, curriculum specialists, college and university science educators, and policymakers whose practices and decisions affect these students.
The need for a volume of this sort became evident in 1994 when the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) Project 2061 brought together a group of educators, including myself, to explore the equity implications of the science education reform and to write an Equity Blueprint. Although a wealth of information was available about some issues related to equity and science education reform (e.g., the literature on gender and science teaching and learning is well developed), in other areas, the solid research on effective practice was sparser than advocacy pieces recommending one view or intervention or another. Moreover, even the advocacy pieces tended to be written from a particular standpoint, that of special, multicultural, or ESL/bilingual education, or a specific ethnic group. There seemed to be a need to bring together these various views to better understand the scope of the equity issues facing science education reform. This volume draws on various research and practice perspectives to explore common themes, promising practices, and forces for change.
In the literature on education reform, discussions of how diverse learners are actually experiencing the reforms being enacted in schools are often relegated to a special "Equity" chapter or section of a work. At the same time, many educators have come to understand that equity issues are at the heart of the reform efforts, and are its most daunting challenges. This book is designed to be used in preservice science teacher education classes in tandem with the regular text or course readings. As a science teaching and learning topic is encountered, its equity implications should be simultaneously considered. Discussion of elements of science education reform that have positive or negative effects on diverse learners should be woven seamlessly into preservice instruction, rather than compartmentalized in a special section of a course.
The volume is also intended for professional development. Those who work first hand with the complex ethical, organizational, interpersonal, and epistemological quandaries raised by science education reform should find resources here for making informed choices. This wide audience includes not only science educators, but also teachers who work with students with disabilities or English language learners, curriculum specialists, administrators, and individuals who make and influence education policy-from concerned , activist parents to lawmakers. These readers will recognize many of the problems raised here and learn from how they are being addressed across the United States.
Drawing heavily from the education policy, equity, and science education research literature, the volume explores how the sociocultural contexts of the students' lives influence science education reform efforts. It contains stories about teachers, students, and science classrooms, some hopeful and some distressing, chosen to illustrate the complexity and contradictions of the reform. (These stories are true in the sense that all have been drawn from actual situations, but their contexts have been altered in order to preserve confidences, and pseudonyms are used.)
In the first chapter, the reader is invited to engage in a scenario that shows how difficult it can be for one student, a working class Latina child named Elena, to access an education that could lead her to science literacy. Chapter 1 also introduces an "equity schema," set in the context of standards-based reform. The equity schema provides a framework for understanding and perhaps resolving some of the equity issues in this volume. Chapters 2 and 3 provide statistics comparing those historically underserved by science education with those who have fared better. Reviewing the work of equity experts and theorists with a range of perspectives, the reader is led to understand the complexity of the causes underlying the achievement gaps, and the breadth of the equity issue. Chapter 4 explores a different sort of gap-the span between the worldviews of socioculturally diverse learners and the worldviews implicit in the science classrooms that these students occupy. Chapters 5 through 9 employ an equity perspective to examine various aspects of the reform such as curriculum, resource allocation, teaching, and assessment, highlighting problems as well as promising practices. Chapter 10 refocuses on individual students, and how the sociocultural-political forces within schools and without affect how children learn. Chapter 11 summarizes what is known about equity and science education reform, and suggests a research agenda to fill in the substantial gaps between rhetoric, beliefs, practices, and systematic inquiry.
This volume is intended to stimulate thinking and discussion about equity issues and science education reform, and to direct the reader to the research and policy base. As it developed, it became apparent that any one of the chapters could be expanded into a full-length book, which could be explored from any number of different perspectives. Consequently, I offer this work to fellow science educators less as a definitive work, than as a catalyst for thinking and to suggest changes in education policy and practices for diverse learners. For policymakers and researchers, the volume should raise questions about some of the assumptions of science education reform and the need to find better answers, if we are serious about our commitment to science literacy for all, Finally, I hope it persuades us to "listen to our better angels" when making educational decisions, large and small, on behalf of all our students.