Going beyond cultural pluralism: Science education for sociopolitical action

• Published in: Science education (Salem, Mass.) Vol. 83; no. 6; pp. 775 - 796
• Main Author: Hodson, Derek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.11.1999; Wiley; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Citizen Participation; Curricula; Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods; Educational Philosophy; Educational sciences; Elementary Secondary Education; Exact and natural sciences; Multicultural Education; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Science and Society; Science Curriculum; Science Education; Social Change; Social Problems; Teacher Education; Teaching methods; Science; Cultural Pluralism; Nondiscriminatory Education; Racism; Ethnic Minority; Curriculum Development
• ISSN: 0036-8326; 1098-237X
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-237X(199911)83:6<775::AID-SCE8>3.0.CO;2-8

Some guiding principles of antiracist education are combined with Vygotskian notions of education as enculturation in order to produce a set of proposals for a radical form of multicultural science education for sociopolitical action. Major educational goals include: raising participation and attainment levels in science for students from ethnic minority groups; and sensitizing all students to racism, and other forms of discrimination and oppression, in science and technology, science education, and contemporary society. This article outlines a radical form of curriculum development, involving the politicization of teachers, as the only effective way of implementing such a curriculum. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 83:775–796, 1999.