Empowering Science Education & Teaching Science for Social
Justice Edna Tan University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Agenda Empowering science education & Science as a tool for
social justice (5mins) Jana case study A community science expert
(20 mins) Designing experiences in science to foster youth CSE
identity development (20 mins) Wrap up (5mins)
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Education & Social Justice Education, at its core, must be
about working with people to tear down barriers that separate,
sort, & label individuals and social groups hierarchically
based on their social, cultural & economic backgrounds. -
Calabrese-Barton, paraphrasing Paulo Freire
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean? Our
society has a history of environmental racism and hierarchical
relationships between those who know science (and how to manipulate
scientific findings) and those who dont. (Gourlay, 1992)
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean?
Science holds a uniquely powerful place in our society. provides a
knowledge base for more informed conversations with health-care
workers Demystifies key environmental issues such as air quality
standards, pollution standards for drinking water, toxic-dump &
building regulations
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean?
Science can be used as a tool for change. Important to think about
science not just as a way of understanding the world, but also as a
political activity framed around power, status & influence
EMPOWERING students through and in science
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COMMUNITY SCIENCE EXPERT MODEL One of the UHI movies.
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Tan & Calabrese Barton, 2012. P. 44
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Figure 3: Vertical and Horizontal aspects of the CSE model
COMMUNITY SCIENCE EXPERT MODEL
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You have to know about your community if you are going to make
your investigation really make a difference. So, you have to know
more than just the science you are doing. I mean no one really
cares about carbon dioxide. Really. They dont. But when you explain
how it actually impacts the global warming and using the CFLs saves
money too, then people will. - Jana, 13 year old.
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COMMUNITY SCIENCE EXPERT MODEL
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Case Study: Jana Jana, a fifth grader, who attended an after-
school program called Green Energy Technologies in the City (GET
City) during the 2008-2009 school year
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Exploring the case Your challenge is to pay attention to Janas
learning about green energy & how it is empowering for her. In
doing so, you will reflect upon the following questions: What does
she seem to be interested in? Why? How do the social, political and
cultural contexts in which she lives inform what she knows and
cares about? How does Jana leverage her knowledge and interests to
engage with the green energy focus of GET City?
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What Janna had to say about her community
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Jana questions an expert Jana asked her own question to an
expert panel at a green energy GET City expert forum linking green
energy with both the environment and the economy. Before the forum,
GET City youth compiled a list of questions to ask the experts;
however, Jana goes off script and asks a question that is not on
the prepared list given to the experts. This connection has been
made in a public service announcement by Green for All that Jana
watched in the fall with GET City.
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Jana questions an expert Jana: Why do you think green energy is
so important to the earth and the economy? Expert: Which (question)
number is that? GC teacher: Uh, she added that GET City Expert
Forum, 20 Nov 2008
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Jana letter to an expert
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Janas PSA
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Jana brings GET City into her classroom Surveys and replaces 50
incandescent light bulbs in her school with 50 CFLs Asks permission
to survey her school light bulbs Asks for donations from local
board of water & light for CFLs for her school Replaces the
lightbulbs for her school
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Group Discussion What were the connections between life
experiences and GET City science knowledge that were evident in
Janas learning toolkit? (what did she know, do and say?) E.g. how
might her concern with global warming impact her engagement with
green energy issues? How did Jana demonstrate empowerment in her
engagement? How did science serve as a tool for Jana to address
social justice issues in her life?
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Tan & Calabrese Barton, 2012. P. 171
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Your Turn In your groups, come up with a 2-3 lesson
sequence/unit that you can use with your students to position them
as Community Science experts. Think about: -Their practices: what
will they do? -Their identities/roles: Who can they be? -Their
resources: What can they draw from? Who can they draw from?
-Authentic products: What can they produce that will benefit them
AND a possible larger community?
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Building an empowering classroom
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean?
1.Recognizing oppression: There is injustice in society 2.Teachers
as change-agents: Teachers can interrupt the cycles of oppression
3.Social justice pedagogy: That students themselves are ultimately
part of the solution to injustice, both as youth and as they grow
up into adulthood
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean? 4.
Students need to understand more deeply the sociopolitical dynamics
of their world. 5. Science can be used as a tool for change. 6.
Important to think about science not just as a way of understanding
the world, but also as a political activity framed around power,
status & influence
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Teaching Science for social justice What does this mean? 7.
Science holds a uniquely powerful place in our society. provides a
knowledge base for more informed conversations with health-care
workers Demystifies key environmental issues such as air quality
standards, pollution standards for drinking water, toxic-dump &
building regulations
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Vertical and Horizontal aspects of the CSE model Tan &
Calabrese Barton, 2012. p. 138 COMMUNITY SCIENCE EXPERT MODEL
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Resources Getcity.org this is the GET city website [Principal
Investigators Angela Calabrese Barton, Scott Calabrese Barton (MSU)
& Carmen Turner (BGCL]. You can find videos and PSAs youth
created here. Tan E, & Calabrese Barton, A. (2012) Empowering
Science and Mathematics classrooms in urban schools. University of
Chicago Press.