An Investigation of Science Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACTScience teacher educators (STEs) openly suggest that kindergarten–Grade 12 teachers must be prepared to teach all students, especially diverse learners, who may be marginalized in and by science; however, how STEs prepare preservice teachers to engage and empower diverse students in science teacher education needs further research. Therefore, perceptions of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) were collected from a group of STEs in a Mid-Atlantic state. The study highlighted here was part of a larger study in which 66 STEs were invited to participate in an online qualitative survey. The current article presents data from 11 STEs who consented to the online survey; 4 from this pool of 11 were then carefully selected for 3 semistructured interviews. The findings of the qualitative survey, which were commensurate with the interviews, revealed that participants articulated prerequisites of CRP or beliefs and practices that could be likened to a turn toward teaching in culturally relevant ways. The overall findings revealed the STEs’ ability to articulate the need for ideological change in science education to empower all students, but STEs were unable to describe how CRP or other substantial pedagogical changes could be used to address the needs of historically underserved or marginalized students in science classrooms. This was primarily because of their misunderstandings of what CRP is and how it can be implemented in science education. Implications for the integration of CRP within teacher education are discussed.