Erin Sperling

“More Than Particle Theory”: Citizenship Through School Science

The body of literature connecting science education and citizenship is growing, through the lens, for example, of science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education. The case study highlighted here explores ways in which students in a seventh-grade science class used studies of waste management to engage in active citizenship. In our analyses of their action projects, we suggest that students formed new connections between science education and citizenship. Through personal changes they appeared to undergo, it seemed that they gained recognition of the impact that an individual can have on the well-being of self, society, and environment. Factors influencing their personal changes, including changes in their science literacy and self-efficacy beliefs, indicate directions for possible expansion studies of interactions between science and citizenship education.RésuméLa littérature associant l’enseignement des sciences et la notion de citoyenneté responsable est en expansion, par le biais de l’enseignement des science, technologies, société et environnement (STSE). Cet article analyse les façons dont un cours de sciences de niveau intermédiaire s’est servi d’études sur la gestion des déchets pour stimuler la participation active à la notion de citoyennet é responsable. Une analyse des résultats des «projets d’action» des étudiants—c’est-à-dire des changements personnels qui sont survenus chez ces derniers—a montré qu’ils avaient établissaient de nouveaux liens entre l’enseignement des sciences et la citoyenneté responsable. Grâce à ces changements personnels, ils ont appris à reconnaître l’impact que l’individu peut avoir sur le bien-être individuel, collectif et environnemental. Les facteurs qui influencent les changements indiquent la nécessité d’élargir le champs de la recherche sur les interactions pédagogiques entre l’enseignement des sciences et la notion de citoyenneté responsable.

Teachers’ Beliefs, Classroom Practices and Professional Development Towards Socio-scientific Issues

In this chapter we propose to contribute to research in socio-scientific issues (SSIs) by putting forward a discussion of factors that influence science teachers’ SSI teaching and of the type of teaching needed to prepare students for active participation in SSIs. Contributions from researchers in four different European countries, Canada and Australia are presented. In an analytical perspective, two studies identified secondary science teachers’ viewpoints on SSI teaching and factors that positively influence the implementation of classroom discussion activities on SSIs. In an interventionist perspective, three studies investigated student teachers’ and teachers’ professional development towards promotion of student-led, research-informed activism to address SSIs or towards the implementation of inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) to develop students’ participation in complex environmental SSIs. Results from the diverse contributions showed that teachers’ views on the concept of citizenry differ, their views on their own competency differ and teachers’ competencies and concerns as teachers impact their interpretation of science curricula and views on SSI teaching. Different types of professional development, exemplified by student teacher courses and in-service action research, might to some extent change teachers’ views of SSI teaching or result in promising inquiry-based SSI teaching practices. A general hypothesis that might be drawn from this chapter is that science teachers’ concepts of citizenry and SSI teaching are essential for their effort to implement SSI teaching and for their success in preparing students for dealing with the complexity of SSIs.

We Got Involved and We Got to Fix It!: Action-Oriented School Science

The body of literature connecting science education and citizenship is growing, through the lens, for example, of science, technology, society and environment (STSE) education. The case study highlighted here uses the STEPWISE framework to explore ways in which students in a seventh-grade science class in an urban centre in Ontario, Canada used studies of waste management to engage in active citizenship. In our observations and analyses of their action projects, we suggest that students formed new connections between science education and citizenship. Through personal changes they appeared to experience through the projects, it seems that they gained recognition of the positive impact that an individual can have on the well-being of self, society, and environment. Factors influencing their personal changes, including changes in their science literacy and self-efficacy beliefs, as well as particular influences of their teacher, indicate directions for possible expansion studies and implementations of interactions between science and citizenship education.

Teaching Girls to Fish?: A Case of a Co-Curricular Food Justice Education Program for Youth

This paper represents an ethnographic study of youth engaged in research-informed and negotiated actions around socio-scientific issues (SSI ) through the STEPWISE framework from the perspective of sustainability education. Through facilitated action research, a food justice-oriented community-based organization and the STEPWISE team collaborated on two consecutive eight-month after-school programs for teenage girls. Curriculum topics included food preparation and health along with social and environmental justice. A key aim of this study was to engage participants in actions, personal and social, based on skill development, acquired content knowledge, and youth-led research relevant to the topics of the program and in line with STEPWISE pedagogy. The study found many positive outcomes for program participants, including increased self-efficacy and outcome expectancy related to their agency as researchers and food justice advocates. Deeper analysis of program goals versus outcomes yielded some challenges to overall expectation achievement. These challenges may be attributed to resource limitations, divergent pedagogical practices and facilitator comfort with student-led research and multimedia technologies. The authors used constant-comparative methods to understand challenges to a community-university SSI-based partnership, and how in future they may be negotiated and overcome, toward more socially-just youth programs, especially for those with a goal of sustainability.