It can’t just be science: preservice elementary science teachers' ideas for teaching a social justice science issue

Abstract Science is often perceived as an objective, apolitical, and static body of knowledge, rather than a set of practices for understanding how and why the world works. Teaching science through social justice science issues (SJSIs) can facilitate a more complex and nuanced understanding of science while supporting children to recognize how science can be a tool to either oppress or push against injustice. Integrating science and social justice movements, however, can be challenging for early career teachers, and particularly elementary teachers. For this qualitative study, five preservice elementary teachers grappled with how they might advise a colleague to teach science through one social justice science issue—a train derailment in a nearby state. In foregrounding an SJSI for a hypothetical lesson, teachers shared affordances and challenges to this work, illuminating and exploring three boundaries: (1) boundaries of what counts as science; (2) boundaries of one’s own knowledge; and (3) boundaries of one’s role as a teacher. I discuss implications for teacher education programs, with specific emphasis on supporting teachers to engage in transdisciplinary work and their own critical reflection.