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Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness

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Abstract

Addressing the challenges facing society and the world will require an understanding of the biases and limitations of science. To combat these challenges, here, we advocate for the incorporation of ideologically aware (IA) material into postsecondary biology curricula. IA materials communicate to students how biases, assumptions, and stereotypes inform approaches to and outcomes of science. By engaging with IA materials, student awareness of the impact of science on social problems is expected to increase. In this paper, we situate this IA approach with two other pedagogical approaches that incorporate societally relevant content: culturally relevant pedagogy and socioscientific issues. We then call for research to test ways of supporting instructor implementation of IA material, to evaluate the impact of IA topics on student academic and sociopsychological outcomes, and to explore how to implement IA material in different cultural and social settings. Throughout, we focus on IA topics in the context of postsecondary biology classrooms but encourage the incorporation of IA materials across scientific disciplines and educational settings. Our hope is that greater inclusion of IA materials will create more transparent, scientifically accurate, and inclusive classrooms.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Ballen lab for advice on this manuscript and Helen Georgiou for guidance through the preparation of this manuscript. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). RAC was funded by NSF-DUE-2011995; AEB and RDPD were funded by NSF-DUE-2020934; and JEP was funded by NSF-PRFB-2109600.

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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-DUE-2011995, NSF-DUE-2020934, and NSF-PRFB-2109600).

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA

    Robin A. Costello, Abby E. Beatty, Ryan D. P. Dunk, Sharday N. Ewell & Cissy J. Ballen

  2. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Jenna E. Pruett

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Costello, R.A., Beatty, A.E., Dunk, R.D.P. et al. Re-envisioning Biology Curricula to Include Ideological Awareness. Res Sci Educ 54, 13–26 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10101-0

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