Teaching for Justice in Elementary Science
A Practical Justice and Anti-Racism Framework from the ASSETS Project
Justice doesn’t only matter in content-neutral ways in schooling. What are some of the educational justice issues specifically related to elementary science and how are they perpetuated? The issues below aren’t the only ones that matter in elementary science teaching and learning, but they provide a good place for us to start. As elementary teachers, we can take concrete actions to engage in justice-centered and anti-racist teaching across content areas and within science.
1 - LIMITED OPPORTUNITY & ACCESS
Black, Indigenous, and other people of color and other marginalized groups have historically had opportunities foreclosed. Redlining precluded Black people from moving into white neighborhoods. Many colleges excluded Black students. This led to less accumulation of wealth and fewer opportunities to study science in college. In addition, science has historically been viewed as a hard subject, leading to people believing it is a subject best done by “smart white men.”
Funding for schools in the US is tied to property taxes, which are tied to property values. Some schools have been inadequately funded for generations. Because of state accountability, these schools often have outsized focus on test scores, leading to focus on ELA and math to the exclusion of everything else – including science. Thus, students may lack opportunities and access to science.
2 - LIMITED REPRESENTATION & IDENTIFICATION
Furthermore, society has historically viewed science from a dominant (Western or Eurocentric) perspective, valuing only the science done by (mainly White male) Western scientists and marginalizing science as understood by other groups, including Indigenous peoples.
This can mean that many children don’t see people like them doing science (representation), and don’t see science as something that they could do (identification).
3 - NARROW VIEWS OF WHAT COUNTS AS SCIENCE
Indeed, many groups have been excluded from being able to do science, have had their contributions stolen or misrepresented, or have been ignored. Science and engineering have also been used as tools to subjugate people of color. This is true historically—the Tuskegee syphilis study provides just one example—but also currently, when research shows that doctors may dismiss symptoms of patients of color, such as Black women in childbirth, and artificial intelligence facial recognition tools can reinforce biological essentialism, leading to racist conclusions about individuals and groups.
Collectively these experiences and realities have led to mistrust of science, a disconnect between science and the communities of students of color, and the missed opportunity for benefiting from the diverse ways of knowing and being that students of color could bring to science professions.
4 - MISSING OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE SCIENCE AS A PART OF JUSTICE MOVEMENTS
At the same time, science can be used as a tool for addressing authentic community needs (like issues of environmental justice or community-based design)but teachers need to be able to watch and listen for those needs and to ensure that they are in meaningful conversation with community members. All too often, science instead is presented as a body of facts or terms rather than a tool to think with and solve problems with.
Finally, because most of the elementary teaching force is White women, many of us need to look inward to recognize how our own identities shape our thinking about teaching and learning. Understanding how science and elementary schooling are both historically situated (particularly in whiteness) can help us better recognize injustices and make science a space for all children’s learning.
To help to address these justice issues, our efforts are focused on four approaches to equity:
increasing opportunity and access in science,
increasing achievement, representation, and identification in science,
expanding what counts as science, and
seeing science as a part of justice movements.
This framework provides you with some reminders, questions to ask yourself, suggestions for teaching moves you can try, and suggestions about ways you can draw on resources as you move forward in your science teaching. If you are a University of Michigan intern, look at some of the ways these four approaches to equity connect to the U-M program's justice foci.
Critical consciousness represents people’s critical analysis of social injustice as well as their motivation and action to challenge social injustices.
Engaging in critical reflection, critical motivation, and critical action is central to the practice of teaching and learning.
There is always work to be done. If you want to learn more or do some personal work, look at some of these critical consciousness resources.
How this Justice Framework might support your critical consciousness:
The Historical Background and Knowledge & Frames sections within each Approach provide important insight on the conditions that have contributed to the disparities in science education today and support you to engage in critical reflection, developing your own knowledge and understanding of marginalization and inequities.
Check out the Moves sections of each Approach (and the linked Examples) to find tangible ways you can take action and address these social injustices within the classroom, through your science teaching.
To consider your own critical motivation and reflection, use the Advocacy & Reflection sections of each Approach to continue the self-work inside and outside of the classroom.
Use the Support sections within each Approach for resources on multiple aspects of your critical consciousness – there are resources for reflection, motivation, and action.
- National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine. (2022). Science and engineering in preschool through elementary grades: The brilliance of children and the strengths of educators. Committee on Enhancing Science and Engineering in PreK through 5th Grade Board on Science Education and Teacher Advisory Council Division of Behavioral and Social Science and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. (Interactive Summary)
- Kober, N., Carlone, H., Davis, E.A., Dominguez, X., Manz, E., & Zembal-Saul, C. 2023. Rise and Thrive with Science: Teaching PK-5 Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26853. (Interactive Overview.)
- Cochran-Smith, M. (2010). Toward a theory of teacher education for social justice. In Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 445-467). Dordrecht: Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_27
- Philip, T., & Azevedo, F. (2017). Everyday science learning and equity: Mapping the contested terrain. Science Education, 101(4), 526–532. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21286
- stemteachingtools.org from Phil Bell and colleagues
- Learning in Places – Culture, Learning and Identity Framework from Megan Bang, Carrie Tzou, and colleagues
- Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining AST Practices and Teacher Education Pedagogies by Jessica Thompson and colleagues
- Teaching Tolerance – Social Justice Standards
- Next Gen Navigator – Social Justice in the Science Classroom blog post by Phil Bell and Deb Morrison
- Abolitionist Teaching Network – Guide for Racial Justice and Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning
- The Trevor Project – Guide to being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Youth
- National Science Teachers Association statement on Gender Equity in Science Education
- Input from and conversations with Heidi Carlone, Kristin Gunckel, Melissa Luna, Henry Suárez, Christina Schwarz, Jessica Thompson, and others in NESTeg; from Debi Khasnabis, Melissa Stull, Tim Boerst, Meghan Shaughnessy, Cathy Reischl, and others in the University of Michigan Elementary Teacher Education program; and from other colleagues including Carrie Tzou, Christa Haverly, and Angie Calabrese Barton.
- Input from previous cohorts of elementary teacher education interns at the University of Michigan.
If you’d like to cite this framework, please use the following:Davis, E. A. (2022). Teaching for Justice in Elementary Science: A Practical Justice and Anti-Racism Framework. Elementary Teacher Education program at the University of Michigan.
If you’re interested in learning more about this framework or how we’ve used it with preservice elementary teachers, see this paper:
Davis, E. A. (2022). Supporting preservice elementary teachers in teaching science for equity and justice: A practical framework. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 7(4). Retrieved from https://innovations.theaste.org/supporting-preservice-elementary-teachers-in-teaching-science-for-equity-and-justice-a-practical-framework/ Please contact Elizabeth A. Davis at betsyd @ umich.edu if you build on this framework. Please also share any feedback you have!Work on this framework was partially funded by the National Science Foundation (DRK12 grant number 2246607). However, all findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors.