Abstract
Despite acknowledging issues of inequity within science education, practices, standards, and reform-guiding documents like the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) still fall short in actions that result in substantive and sustained progress in achieving their expressed goals and expectations. Issues of inequity in science education have been and are continuously documented for certain populations, Black students are of particular interest in this study. Using student responses to a survey to elicit the students’ nominations of teachers to receive a fictitious “Best Science Teacher Award” and reasons for their selections, we explored what captured Black high school students’ attention within their science educational experiences over time (N = 261). Deductive and inductive coding resulted in a category system which was synthesized into three dimensions: affect, praxis, and personal traits. These dimensions encapsulated what students deemed most important in supporting their nominations for the best science teacher award. Collectively, these dimensions suggested that emotion and pedagogy captured Black students’ attention. Additionally, the category system was used to derive student profiles which reflected the various reasons posited in a student’s rationale. Chi-square analyses of student profiles showed significant associations at p < .05 between student profiles and level taught by the nominated teacher (Cramer’s V of 0.783) and student profiles and survey respondent’s grade level (Cramer’s V of 0.480). Implications for studying attention as it relates to learning and the importance of incorporating student perceptions and experiences into policy, reform, and implementation efforts that ensue from each are discussed.
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This manuscript is part of the special issue “Science education and the African Diaspora in the United States”, guest edited by Mary M. Atwater and Jomo W. Mutegi.
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Parsons, E.C., Morton, T.R. My best science teacher: the views of Black students and implications for science education reform. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 17, 63–83 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-022-10106-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-022-10106-7