Teaching Multicultural Science Education to Underserved and Underrepresented Populations in Rural Areas

Abstract

This chapter provides recommendations designed to help science educators teaching in rural areas, particularly the United States, in developing strategies to incorporate multicultural perspectives in their science lessons which include Bank’s framework of multicultural education. Bank’s ((2016) Multicultural education: characteristics and goals. In: Banks JA, Banks CAMG (eds) Multicultural education: issues and perspectives, 9th edn. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 2–23) framework of multicultural education involves addressing concepts of content integration knowledge, construction process, equity pedagogy, prejudice reduction, and empowerment of school culture. Teachers and students in rural communities have many challenges that could limit multicultural high-quality science instruction. While teacher professional development opportunities such as inquiry, culturally relevant instruction, and rural systemic initiatives are essential to alleviating these issues, especially if their students are from immigrant worker families, other issues can also curb the effectiveness of teacher instruction. For example, often, these rurally defined areas have a shortage of qualified teachers and limited technological resources and Internet availability; these areas are known as broadband deserts and lack Internet service providers. Strategies that include bring your own devices (BYOD), encouraging students to participate in science enrichment programs, implementing student-centered lessons based on their own cultural experiences to bolster their self-efficacy toward science-related careers, and creating access to Science Technology Education Mathematics (STEM) centers are ways to solve some of the problems students and teachers in these communities face daily.