Understanding how to Cultivate Culturally Relevant Dispositions among District Science Coordinators and Science Teachers

At the center of the discussions about equity in science education is the importance of defining and articulating what is meant by equity, diversity, and social justice. Despite recent efforts to improve equity in science education, inequities in science education persist. District science coordinators, science teachers, and science teacher educators are key players in the movement toward more equitable science learning and instruction. The purpose of this three manuscript dissertation was to explore the ways in which science teacher educators are working to promote culturally relevant dispositions within science teachers (Paper 1/Chapter 2), examine how district science coordinators are approaching equity in their work with science teachers (Paper 2/Chapter 3), and explore the attitudes and beliefs of science teachers and district science coordinators related to culturally relevant pedagogies in science (Paper 3/Chapter 4). Using culturally relevant education as a guiding framework throughout, findings across all three studies suggest that teachers and district coordinators feel they understand the culture of the students they serve yet are willing to learn more. Many science teacher education and professional development programs emphasize strategies for increasing cultural competence. District science coordinators tend to focus their equity efforts on increasing student opportunity and access to high quality science learning and instruction. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the three studies is there may be a connection between science educators’ knowledge of aspects of nature of science that relates to their confidence and comfort in engaging students in hot topic conversations in science classrooms. Recommendations for future research include exploring the relationships between nature of science knowledge and science educators’ attitudes and beliefs underlying justice issues in science as a way to promote critical reflection and the critique of discourses of power.