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…

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…

By arguing for "putting science education in its place," this essay cautions against overstating the role of science education with respect to global crises with technical components, like climate change. At the same time, it challenges the assumption that science education has no role in addressing equally urgent and widespread problems…

Scientific literacy is still being identified and recognised as one of the main goals of science education. However, this concept has multiple interpretations and its definition changes continuously depending on its social, cultural, and political contexts. In this paper, scientific literacy is conceptualised through "visions I, II and…

School science curricula habitually encourages students to develop science knowledge alongside 'ethical understanding', the moral theory of right and wrong. Drawing from the ideas of Karen Barad, Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti, this paper critically examines the 'science-ethics nexus' in Australian secondary schooling. In doing so, it offers a…

The article "Hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses in science education …", by Flavia Rezende and Fernanda Ostermann (2019), presents an interesting critical analysis of the antagonisms between the meaning of "teaching science" and of "science education." The authors took a critical look at the construction of…

This article presents a case study of "the aspirin unit," a curriculum unit from an advanced chemistry class in a neighborhood high school in a large US city. The extended case method is applied to analyze this curriculum within the larger US political context that criminalizes youth of color. Data sources include retrospective…

This paper explores various theories of curriculum intending to provide a new approach--which we regard as a significant theoretical contribution--to examine the broad set of different discourses that have been shaping science education. We first introduce concepts and values that support traditional and critical curriculum theories and offer some…

Adopting a sociocultural perspective, we construct a case study exploring how a middle school bilingual science teacher reflected and acted when engaged in dialogue, co-teaching, and a newly designed unit on plate tectonics. Sources of data include video of classroom interaction and audio recordings of daily debriefs between the bilingual science…

This response builds upon some of the issues raised in the article "Windows and mirrors: three images of the US science curriculum as reflected through Kenya's Jua Kali" by Jomo W. Mutegi of Indiana University Purdue, U.S.A, and Lazarus O. Momanyi of Moi University. In particular, the need for an operational science education curriculum…

Although in-depth educational reviews can be carried out building on curricular theories, the appropriation of this knowledge by science education scholarship can still be considered timid. In this paper, our intention is to work on this interface; we first introduce basic concepts from the main curricular frameworks and bring possible…

"Wetekia kia rere" is an expression in the Maori language that refers to "unleashing potential". This paper discusses questions of power relevant to challenges recently identified by government officials regarding learners' experiences of science education in New Zealand schools. We begin by summarising the Treaty relationship…

There is an ongoing discussion about what content that should be taught in science education and there are different views among teachers about what represent good science content. However, teachers are not isolated individuals making their own interpretations, but are part of institutionalised systems building on patterns in the selection of…

This article discusses a case for a different, socio-cultural way of looking at learning progressions as treated in the next generation science standards (NGSS) as described by Ralph Cordova and Phyllis Balcerzak's paper "Co-constructing cultural landscapes for disciplinary learning in and out of school: the next generation science standards…

We report on the development of an after-school and summer-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum infused with the arts and social emotional learning content (STEAM SEL). Its design was motivated by theory and research that suggest that STEM education is well-suited for teaching empathy and other emotion-related skills.…