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There is no equity in a vacuum: on the importance of historical, political, and moral considerations in science education

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Abstract

As a response to Fortney and Atwood’s “Teaching with understanding while teaching for understanding” (this issue), this paper challenges definitions of equity that do not explicitly deal with oppression and injustice. I argue that in order to address the problem of inequity at its roots, we must re-center the historical, political, and moral dimensions of equity to disrupt dominant assumptions about the goals of science education. The justice-centered approach I advocate requires understanding inequity as one component of social injustice and necessitates that science education be linked with larger movements for social change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1040 W Harrison Street, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Daniel Morales-Doyle

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  1. Daniel Morales-Doyle
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Correspondence to Daniel Morales-Doyle.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Lead Editors: B. Fortney and B. Upadhyay.

This review essay addresses issues raised in Brian Fortney and Erin Atwood’s paper entitled: Teaching with understanding while teaching for understanding (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09924-z).

This manuscript is part of the special issue Equity in Science Teacher Education: Toward an Expanded Definition, guest edited by Brian Fortney, Deb Morrison, Alberto J. Rodriguez, and Bhaskar Upadhyay.

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Morales-Doyle, D. There is no equity in a vacuum: on the importance of historical, political, and moral considerations in science education. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 14, 485–491 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09925-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09925-y

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