Higher education physics has long been a field with a disproportionately skewed representation in terms of gender, class, and ethnicity. Responding to this challenge, this study explores the trajectories of "unexpected" (i.e., demographically under-represented) students into higher education physics. Based on timeline-guided life-history…

As the coronavirus pandemic unfolded, the use of the term "Chinavirus" to refer to the virus that causes COVID-19 had societal consequences, resulting in discrimination against individuals of Asian descent. In this study of the language used when talking about COVID-19, we used an emergent thematic analysis to explore the potential for…

Science education and science education research have long taken a lead in educating the public about climate change by arguing that the public needs to understand the scientific models that explain the mechanisms of global warming and predict future impacts. However, as of yet, this focus on understanding climate models has failed to have an…

This paper provides an analysis of a research-practice partnership's approach to supporting equitable K-5 science teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight the strength of the partnership and the diverse methodological and theoretical approaches that allowed for timely and effective data collection and analysis in…

In today's world, there is too much information pollution and people circulate it without questioning, and the claims on controversial issues often contain fallacies and conspiracy theories. Considering this point of view, it is necessary to create citizens who critically evaluate information. In order to achieve this goal, science educators need…

When secondary school students were asked about the socioscientific issue of using sodium fluoroacetate (1080) poison to control New Zealand's possum pests, they provided a wide range of responses. Their responses showed that they considered this method of control to be risky and contentious. Such contentious issues are an example of the…

In this study, we explored (a) how Latina undergraduate students negotiated their multiple identities while participating in a research internship designed to create spaces that counter master narratives, and the forms of cultural wealth that were implicated in these identity negotiations, and (b) ways in which the various elements of the research…

Addressing the critical question posed by Gudrun Jonsdottir and Anne Kristine Byhring who are asking what place for a common future in the science classroom, this paper focuses on and expands on the construct of "dialogical space." Not simply as an abstract concept to describe the presence of divergent ideas or the exchange of idioms,…

In this study we examine upper secondary students' notions of contraceptive methods, as human reproduction and contraception are common content in sexuality education in Sweden and worldwide. Our data were constructed during an extensive educational sequence in natural science sexuality education and include audio recordings of 17-18-year-old…

With the global pandemic educators have had to move their courses to virtual spaces, and this quick change has brought up concerns, especially in STEM education where there are ongoing discussions of adapting laboratories and shifting lecture and assessment practices to online learning. One issue that has become more pressing, beyond the financial…

This piece responds to the article by Arif Rachmatullah, Soonhye Park, and Minsu Ha "Crossing borders between science and religion: Muslim Indonesian biology teachers' perceptions of teaching the theory of evolution," in which the authors are among the first researchers to explore the views of Indonesian science teachers regarding…

African-American women continue to be underrepresented in science and engineering field despite years of interventions, including providing out-of-school time STEM experiences. Although some out-of-school time programs have shown impacts in participants' content knowledge and skill acquisition, impacts on science identity development have been…

Native Americans are the least represented population in science fields. In recent years, undergraduate and graduate level summer research programs that aimed to increase the number of Native Americans in science have made some progress. As new programs are designed, key characteristics that address science self-efficacy and science identity and…

Education reforms are rarely successful or free of controversies. However, efforts to "STEM-ify" public education in the USA by positioning education in STEM fields and training of future workforce as the central purposes of public schooling is proving to be remarkably successful and devoid of contention. This paper explains the success…

After reviewing the main discussions on scientific explanation in the literature, this paper outlines a particular approach to explanations based on sociocultural analysis. The aim is to provide a base for discussing explanations as cultural tools in science education. Drawing on studies of collective remembering, this paper focuses on parallels…