Reminders about systemic issues

• Historically, science has been the realm of white males and scientific knowledge has been used to subjugate people of color and others who come from marginalized communities.

• Scientists of color--and scientists from all marginalized communities--have a rightful presence in science and meaningfully contribute to knowledge building in science. Similarly, so do students from marginalized communities.

• Science is often an authentic tool in addressing real-world justice issues large and small.

What could I try to do?

(Here are some examples of these moves.)

• Consider connecting to real-life scientific justice issues in children's lives. This can work particularly well with units on the environment, health or human body systems, water quality, and engineering. Start with issues that are relevant to the community, and look for ways that science can be used to both learn more and address the issue. 

• Help students become agents of change by writing letters or inviting community leaders to the classroom, after investigating issues related to scientific justice. 

• Allow children to explore their own questions about their community and its needs, rather than only providing them with questions.

• Use social justice-oriented local museums, community gardens, farms, or natural science spaces to make community justice connections.

• Use “should we” questions to extend ideas about justice to more-than-humans (like insects, mammals, fish, plants, fungi, land, water, air, ecosystems, etc.). 

• When working on issues of climate justice, be sure to incorporate opportunities for meaningful action (not just learning about problems). 

Questions to ask myself

• How am I using my voice with others to advocate for structural changes where needed?

• Am I pointing out to others where racism or structural inequities exist? 

• How am I pushing back on inequitable policies (like children being pulled from science lessons for “remediation” or because of supposed behavioral issues)?

• Am I questioning the ways science is often positioned as ‘neutral’ and asking what goals this serves?

• Am I helping children consider questions of “justice for whom”?

Tools, frameworks, and activities that can help me

• STEM teaching tools has several Climate Learning Resources.

• Explore youth programs shared through the Zinn Education Project that help engage young people in climate justice action. 

• We wrote a paper that describes how we work with preservice teachers on issues of climate justice, with ideas about how they can work on this with the children in their classrooms. (It's not published yet, but is set to appear in Science & Children!)

• This paper in Science Scope gives ideas about how teachers can work with kids on issues related to climate change and data literacy, with a focus on “special places”. (If you don't have access here, ask Betsy.)

• This book by Daniel Morales-Doyle goes into depth about how we can connect to socioscientific issues.