In this forum paper, I grapple with critical questions about our understanding of science as a discipline and the education standards formulated within that framing. My exploration is contextualized in our current socio-political climate and is presented in discourse with Charity Winburn's "Meeting the needs of the individual student in the…

Jenna Scaramanga and Michael Reiss, in their article, "Evolutionary Stasis: Creationism, Evolution and Climate Change in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum," examine multiple editions of science materials produced by Accelerated Christian Education, ranging from the 1980s to the 2010s. They find that the materials offer a…

This paper is part of a larger NSF funded research project that situates the lived experiences and narratives of African Americans and Black heritage in the K-12 science curriculum. This work contributes to research on the science capital, and on positive and empowering identity construction for the African Diaspora. This study takes the position…

A growing body of research demonstrates the value of asking students to write about science for authentic purposes. But which purposes--and, just as importantly, whose purposes--count as authentic? In this theoretical article, we review several conceptions of authentic purpose drawn from science education and literacy education and use these to…

Education by and for Indigenous peoples needs to focus on and honor the life-affirming notions of land- and place-based connections, our individual and collective responsibilities, reciprocity, and relationships. In todays' school settings, redefining what "success" looks like as well as supporting Indigenous identities are critical to…

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid developments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural communication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering…

For a long time within the history of education, it has been assumed that science classrooms are homogeneous spaces, constituted with the prevailing conception that only scientific culture can be represented. At the same time, Latin America is characterized by being a region with enormous biological and cultural diversity, with an invaluable…

Inspired by Freire's principle of dialogue, in this article we present a series of dialogues and critical syntheses between a science teacher-researcher with 35 years of experience and an early-career science teacher-researcher. We explore being in-between academic research in science education and high school teaching. Following Anzaldúa's…

In this article, we argue that mainstream science education is contaminated by neoliberal values and functions in the service of political domination and exploitation and that a neoliberal and exploitative science education does not contribute to the building of a sustainable and just world. The work from Paulo Freire and Enrique Dussel underpin…

The aim of this work is to reflect on the challenging trajectory of international cooperation between East Timor and Brazil, which focused on the need to rethink teacher education from a critical intercultural perspective, aiming to build emancipatory relations, love, and solidarity. From 2009 until 2016, we coordinated the Qualification of…

In the last decades, agroecological and permacultural initiatives and organizations have grown. These initiatives attend to notions of food sovereignty and alternative models of agricultural production. The confluence of different actors and social initiatives through which experiences and knowledge of cultivating food are shared, and new ones are…

This article explores ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) through a Freirean lens of critical consciousness, dialogue, and transformation. The purpose is to draw from where there have been processes of engagement of sociopolitical action in science and how these spaces can become meaningful entry points to take toward making a…

This article advances a dialogue for understanding curriculum integration as a form of radical pedagogy, starting from science education in times of climate crisis. The paper weaves Paulo Freire's work about a radical form of emancipatory pedagogy, bell hooks's proposal to transgress boundaries in teaching, and the landscape of identities for…

This paper makes the case that love, in particular a lover's discourse, is regularly excluded from the work we do in higher education. As educators, we are seldom empowered to reach for a discourse of love, nor are we taught to embody love explicitly in our work. This doesn't mean that love doesn't exist in education, but rather something more…

This is a story of becoming. In this creative non-fiction essay, I share a case study of an informal science program for high school aged youth that took place over 5-weeks one summer in an urban park in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. I conducted observations, interviews, and artifact analysis to explore how youth environmental interest and identity…