Becoming an urban science educator

Abstract

This autobiography examines research in which I was involved while learning to teach science in an inner city high school. As an experienced science educator I had mainly experienced schools associated with students from the middle class. When I came to a university in an inner city environment I had to learn first how to be streetwise in the city and then, when I began to teach, I had to negotiate with students my right to teach them. Most students were very resistant to my efforts to teach them science. The paper describes many of the difficulties I experienced as I endeavoured to teach science to students who were ethnically, curriculum to the interests and extant knowledge of students is emphasised. Implications of my experiences are described for three aspects of urban high schools: teaching science, identifying and enacting appropriae science curricula, and educating prospective science teachers.