by Gallard Martinez, Alejandro J.

Teaching is a very complex endeavor. Embedded within this complex environment are issues of power, culture, ethnicity, and race. When teachers and students come together, in the classroom, some of these issues become visible and others remain invisible. Attempting to make influences on teaching and learning visible is one of the steps toward developing a practice framed by conscientização. Ms. Cook, the teacher of this story, is empowering herself and her students; through critical reflection that serves to deneutralize educational acts by recognizing they are embedded in issues of culture, ethnicity, politics, power, and, race. Classroom based research must be more inclusive and indeed cognizant of the mediating macrostructures that teachers deal with everyday. For example, Goldberg and Muir Welsh describe some of the students as being Latinos. In doing so, they adopts a third person as opposed to a first person view of these students. A first person view can acknowledge a dialectical relationship between race and ethnicity.

DOI: 10.1007/s11422-009-9191-8
Online Date: 3/28/2009
Print publication date: 9/1/2009
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by Chinn, Pauline W. U.

This response draws from the literature on adaptive learning, traditional ecological knowledge, and social–ecological systems to show that Brad’s choice is not a simple decision between traditional ecological knowledge and authentic science. This perspective recognizes knowledge systems as dynamic, cultural and historical activities characterized by diverse worldviews and ways of constructing and legitimizing knowledge. Brad’s decision is seen as an example of adaptive learning, identity development and personal/collective agency oriented to increasing tribal influence in resource management decisions and policies. I will conclude that science literacy for all is not served by a transcendent, universal, Western modern view of science.

DOI: 10.1007/s11422-009-9185-6
Online Date: 3/25/2009
Print publication date: 9/1/2009
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by Sammel, Ali

This paper provides another way to gaze upon Brad’s story as presented by van Eijck and Roth (2010). It raises questions about infrastructural racism in contemporary science education by exploring its association with Whiteness and White privilege. To explore the racial positioning inherent in Western science education specific attention is given to the positions of power that accompany Western ways of knowing the world (i.e., science education) in comparison to Other ways of knowing the world (i.e., First Nations Ways of Knowing). The paper suggests the power relationships inherent within this dualism are asymmetrical due to the implications of Whiteness within colonial societies. Even though power relations were not discussed in Brad’s story, the paper suggests the implications were visible. The paper concludes by advocating for a re-imagining in science education where the traditional ontological and epistemological foundations are deconstructed and spaces are created for enacting practical ways of resisting oppression.

DOI: 10.1007/s11422-009-9184-7
Online Date: 3/24/2009
Print publication date: 9/1/2009
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by Eijck, Michiel; Roth, Wolff-Michael

Bringing a greater number of students into science is one of, if not the most fundamental goals of science education for all, especially for heretofore-neglected groups of society such as women and Aboriginal students. Providing students with opportunities to experience how science really is enacted—i.e., authentic science—has been advocated as an important means to allow students to know and learn about science. The purpose of this paper is to problematize how “authentic” science experiences may mediate students’ orientations towards science and scientific career choices. Based on a larger ethnographic study, we present the case of an Aboriginal student who engaged in a scientific internship program. We draw on cultural–historical activity theory to understand the intersection between science as practice and the mundane practices in which students participate as part of their daily lives. Following Brad, we articulate our understanding of the ways in which he hybridized the various mundane and scientific practices that intersected in and through his participation and by which he realized his cultural identity as an Aboriginal. Mediated by this hybridization, we observe changes in his orientation towards science and his career choices. We use this case study to revisit methodological implications for understanding the role of “authentic science experiences” in science education.

DOI: 10.1007/s11422-009-9183-8
Online Date: 3/24/2009
Print publication date: 9/1/2009
View article on SpringerLink