This research envisioned as its main objective the comprehension of the process of knowledge production concerning the Afro-Brazilian boldo ("Plectranthus barbatus Andrews"), with the contributions from both scientists and the Afro-Brazilian people. As specific objectives, we attempted to reconstruct the research pathways traveled by…

In this commentary, I consider several theoretical and methodological aspects of Nadaraji Govender and Edson Mudzamiri's study. The commentary starts with an examination of the purpose for making physics understandable to learners of indigenous background and decolonization of school physics in Govender and Mudzamiri. Next, I offer an alternative…

This article considers science teaching and learning as may be understood through the integration of indigenous artefacts into physics curriculum in Zimbabwean schools. It comments significance of and elaborates on the issues raised in Nadaraj Govender and Edson Mudzamiri's paper entitled: Incorporating indigenous artefacts in developing an…

In her critical analysis of a popular children's television show which centers the experiences of a Black girl veterinarian, Sheron Mark finds that although the positioning of these identities illustrates progress vis-à-vis representation, diversity through representation further upholds whiteness. Consequently, to meaningfully engage tenets of…

This paper examines the social fever of MBBS (undergraduate medical) aspiration in India. It analyzes interviews conducted with 139 pharmacy graduates and 37 currently enrolled students in the western Indian state of Gujarat, of whom 147 pursued but failed to get admission to medical college. Respondents include graduates from the 1970s onwards.…

The animated children's television show, "Doc McStuffins," may serve as an out-of-school multicultural STEM education platform for its young television audience. The lead character, as well as the supporting cast of toy characters, represents a variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural identities while modeling medicine and healthcare…

This paper is a search for common ground between two natural scientists, two childhood studies and education scholars and two human-animal studies or critical animal studies scholars all working within a shared citizen science project. The search takes the form of a thematic mapping of existing literature on ecological citizen science, with two…

The need to increase the number of African American women who obtain STEM degrees has been well documented in the literature by researchers, scientists, and policymakers. Increasing the participation of this group of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM is both an issue of social justice and economic advancement on a national scale.…

This paper is a reflection on Bobby Habig, Preeti Gupta, and Jennifer Adams' article "Disrupting deficit narratives in informal science education: Applying community cultural wealth theory to youth learning and engagement" (EJ1307485). The article examines the significance of community cultural capital and the need for informal STEM…

Informal learning organizations such as museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, and community-based organizations are often positioned as having programming that fill a void that may exist in the lives of youth participants. Often these institutions do not recognize the assets that youth gain from their own homes and communities and bring to bear in…

Scientific training often begins with learning content knowledge and techniques. As a student progresses, they are required to communicate the results of their experiments with their instructors in a manner that other scientists would understand. This style of communication is stressed throughout their entire training. But what happens when the…

Jill Williams and Sara Tolbert (2021) suggest that neoliberal reforms in Arizona have 'ironically positioned science classrooms and science teachers as high potential sites of/for resistance' to these reforms (p. 72). This forum response explores a number of ethical questions for American science teachers that arise from the political influence of…

The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary challenges in recent history. Amidst this global crisis, various controversies have been emerging about how to manage the virus, ranging from whether face masks should be required as a preventive measure to whether hydroxychloroquine is an…

We design and research family-based science experiences that provide opportunities to enact discovery-oriented approaches to science learning that challenge dominant conceptions of what counts as science learning by bringing families' sensemaking to the forefront. We engaged two approaches. First, we provided families with simple activity prompts…

This essay responds to Jill Williams and Sara Tolbert (2021) and discusses the similarities and differences in curriculum, classroom, teaching and standards between Arizona, USA, and Victoria, Australia. Williams and Tolbert relate a good news story in a state of neoliberal educational despair. This essay argues that, from a relatively well…