Desettling Expectations in Science Education

Bibliographic Data

ID5767920
AuthorsMegan Bang (0000-0001-7364-469X, University of Washington), Beth Warren, Ann S Rosebery, Douglas L Medin (0000-0003-4372-7202)
Year2012
Volume55
Issue5-6
Pages302-318
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-716X • E-ISSN: 1423-0054
PublisherKarger Publishers (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.1159/000345322
OpenAlexW1969954974
LanguageEN
Citations received199
References cited40

Calls for the improvement of science education in the USA continue unabated, with particular concern for the quality of learning opportunities for students from historically nondominant communities. Despite many and varied efforts, the field continues to struggle to create robust, meaningful forms of science education. We argue that 'settled expectations' in schooling function to (a) restrict the content and form of science valued and communicated through science education and (b) locate students, particularly those from nondominant communities, in untenable epistemological positions that work against engagement in meaningful science learning. In this article we examine two episodes with the intention of reimagining the relationship between science learning, classroom teaching, and emerging understandings of grounding concepts in scientific fields - a process we call desettling. Building from the examples, we draw out some key ways in which desettling and reimagining core relations between nature and culture can shift possibilities in learning and development, particularly for nondominant students

Environmental Education and Sustainability · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Science Education and Pedagogy