I start by considering some of the similarities between journalists and science teachers in their work and then go on to examine three questions that are of importance in dealing with creationism in schools: Is the issue one that is worth dealing with? How might one deal with it? What does one hope to achieve by dealing with it? I conclude that…

I respond to Pike and Dunne by exploring the utilization of citizen science in science education. Their results indicate that students fail to pursue science beyond the secondary level, in part, because of prior educational experiences with science education. Students lack motivation to pursue degrees and careers in science because they feel…

In the context of educational soundness, a case is made for distinguishing between two overlapping concepts: academic science and relevant science. In the context of political reality, a case is made for a science educator to hone strategies that co-opt, circumvent, or marginalize political adversaries before they do the same to you.

The current political and social backdrop in China that is characterized by rapid educational reforms to the K-12 education system, rapid growth in the number of science museum institutions, and Central Government policy which encourages collaboration between museums and school has the potential to be fertile ground for meaningful engagement…

Examining role forces and resources available to new teachers is crucial to understanding how teachers use and expand cultural, social, and symbolic resources and how they engage teaching for social justice and caring in urban science education. This critical narrative inquiry explores three levels of story. First, the narratives explore my role…

Resistance to more humanistic forms of science education is an endemic and persistent feature of university scientists as well as school science teachers. This article argues that science education researchers should pay more attention to its origins and to the subtleties of its stubborn influence. The paper explores some of the imperatives which…

This case study draws attention to Pedro's story, a Grade 6 Latino teacher who, along with other grade 4-6 teachers, participated in a three-year professional development research project. By using data analyzed from multiple ethnographic interviews with teachers and students, and by drawing from the quantitative analyzes of concept map unit…

This response to the two papers (by Rodriguez and Carlone et al.) on science education reform acknowledges first the coherence of the arguments presented around four reform narratives; that of the process of becoming science-enthusiastic, the nature of beliefs of science reform teachers, the barriers to reform, and the institutional expressions of…

Science educators and researchers have bemoaned the lack of reform-based science in elementary schools and focused on teachers' difficulties (i.e., lack of knowledge, interest, experience) in enacting quality science pedagogy. We present compelling evidence that challenges assumptions about science education reform and draw on a practice theory…

This essay addresses Katherine Richardson Bruna's paper: "Mexican Immigrant Transnational Social Capital and Class Transformation: Examining the Role of Peer Mediation in Insurgent Science", through five main points. First, I offer a comparison between the traditional analysis of classism in Latin America and Richardson Bruna's call for…

In this paper we respond to Staver's article (this issue) on an attempt to resolve the discord between science and religion. Most specifically, we comment on Staver's downplaying of difference between Catholics and Protestants in order to focus on the religion-science question. It is our experience that to be born into one or other of these…

In this paper I consider the case of one student, Todd Alexander, through analyzing the transcripts of his interviews between him and his teacher (Wolff-Michael Roth). I examine the role that emotions play in the development of the interpretive repertoires that Todd employed as he talked about his scientific and his religious beliefs. I identify…

In and with this text, I introduce the Forum that centers around a series of essays written by a high school student and an interview with his teacher all collected as part of a larger study about students' discourses with respect to (nature of) science, learning, and knowing. I provide a brief review of the original findings, which had been…

The debate about Islam and science extends to a debate about the relationship between Islam and science education. In this paper, I explore Egyptian teachers' views of the relationship between science and religion within the Islamic context. Teachers' key vision of the relationship between science and religion was that "religion comes first…

In David Long's article, "Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord," he studies the discourse between a network of regional scientists, atheists, activists and evolutionists at the opening of The Creation Museum on Memorial Day, 2007. This review essay examines the teaching of evolution through the teacher's "lens of empathy" and also considers a…