This qualitative case study explored the incorporation of students’ funds of knowledge (FoK) by six middle school science teachers in diverse urban classrooms. Drawing on asset-based and culturally inclusive pedagogies, our study is grounded in the premise that students’ diverse identities, languages, and lived experiences, collectively referred to as FoK, are valuable resources for their learning. This study aimed to achieve three primary objectives: 1. Explore how teachers recognized the diverse FoK of students positioned within marginalized contexts, 2. examine the relationship between teachers’ funds of knowledge (tFoK) and students’ FoK, and 3. investigate the extent to which teachers integrated students’ FoK into their teaching methods. Our analysis revealed that teachers’ individual tFoK backgrounds uniquely shaped how they identified and incorporated their students’ FoK into the classroom, shedding light on the diverse approaches employed by teachers in delivering culturally relevant instruction.
Cultural safety is a noteworthy practice in education, particularly in classrooms where First Nations students can be at risk of being marginalised, forgotten or silenced. It is a concept that was originally introduced in 1988 by a Māori nurse, Irihapeti Ramsden and has since been widely adopted by the health education discipline (especially nursing). However, cultural safety as a concept and practice has not featured widely in educational research. In this article, we explore the concept and practice of cultural safety through the example of teaching and learning science education in the tertiary sector where the unit coordinator engaged in a process of including First Nations knowledges alongside traditional western science knowledge, skills and values. Adopting the First Nations methodology of storytelling (specifically, storying and storywork), we present our story of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people working together in preservice teacher science education to find out what cultural safety means in our practice, process and consider what it might mean for our students. Through the journey of storytelling, we discovered that cultural safety can be developed but requires everyone to participate in genuine and reciprocal relationships that acknowledge each other and Country, and practice deep inward reflection as a process of learning. Issues of consent are discussed when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to more deeply understand the complexities involved.
Natural history museums are research centers that also play an important role as cultural spaces, building bridges between the scientific community and society at large. By opening their spaces to the public, especially in thematic exhibitions, they become an environment for experiencing science. Far more than mere displays of already produced knowledge, contemporary thematic exhibitions in museums aim to foster public understanding of science and its processes. In this work, we investigated the emergence of social representations from 494 visitors to a thematic exhibition in a natural history museum, with the aim of analyzing the public incorporation of ideas of and about science, triggered by the experience lived in an exhibition that integrates science and art, about the devastation of waterways in a biodiversity hotspot in Brazil. Through semantic network analysis, our results indicate an awareness and traces of commitment among visitors to the conservation of the biome presented. This suggests that thematic exhibitions in such cultural spaces can structure the axiological dimension of science in the general public, highlighting the crucial role of non-formal education spaces in the scientific literacy of people in general.
Decades of research critique science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for maintaining inequalities through its learning content and culture. The notion of (science) identity has increasingly been used to approach this research, understanding and critiquing how the learning content and culture are socially produced and reproduced in education. With the present work, we develop identity as a tool to capture how social structures are also subverted and reconfigured, thereby offering alternative relations and meanings. We develop and illustrate the use of an analytical framework to conceptualise identity as queer and political performance. This framework for analysing identity and processes of identification utilises Morton’s (2016) work on alternative analytical logics and the discourse theoryk by Laclau and Mouffe (1985/2001). We illustrate the use of the analytical framework, focusing on the role of the discipline and the object and subject of learning, analysing data collected in computer science education. Interrogating the identity performances of a celebrated teacher in a programming course, we show how binary understandings of the computer and gender are undermined in the classroom. The teacher performs as both subject and object in an affective relationship to the computer, hence undermining masculine accounts of the discipline as one of gaining dominance and control over the machine.
This study examines academic chemistry environments and demonstrates how both daily consumables and specialized research instruments interact with students and teachers. In such an environment—a laboratory, a classroom, a staff room—language, discourse, culture, and matter are entangled, without the possibility of clearly distinguishing them as separate entities. It is this entanglement that the present article aims to illustrate. By applying Barad’s feminist theory of agential realism and the concept of “culture” to empirical data collected during fieldwork in which chemistry professors were shadowed and chemistry teaching was observed, I investigate and discuss what the entanglement of matter and discourse produces. Using examples from the empirical data, how matter comes to matter is shown as part of the emergence of material-discursive practices, and how such an “agency” sometimes has effects that extend far beyond the intended purpose and scope, sometimes creating limits on what is possible. In both cases, there are consequences for participants who are either co-creators of the practice or who suddenly find themselves in an already existing one. In the article, I introduce the concept of material dysfunctionality and demonstrate that the absence of material awareness poses a significant risk, primarily for students and other subordinate participants, of finding themselves in non-optimal or even impossible situations. Participants who, due to the material dysfunctionality of an educational or work environment, end up in a performance-unfavorable position can be identified as incompetent and not recognized as potential members of the discipline and culture. Such negative adhesion is more likely if the participant’s perceived shortcomings are reinforced by her status as a woman in a male-dominated environment. Other categories of differences may have similar consequences if perceived as challenging in the prevailing culture.
Higher STEM education is framed as a gateway to societal inclusion for historically underrepresented and marginalised students, including disabled students. Inclusive pedagogies play a crucial role in ensuring that STEM education is accessible and inclusive for all students. The mission of inclusive pedagogies is positive: by implementing them, any instructor could foster more equitable STEM spaces. However, there is only so much instructional design can do amid broader societal issues of exclusion, discrimination, and inequality. How can inclusive pedagogies be conceptualised within such contexts? And what does earlier research know about the potential and limitations of inclusive pedagogies? In this study, we conduct a critical review of research on inclusive pedagogies, with a focus on disability inclusion. We review 18 empirical implementation studies (2011–2023), analysing how these studies conceptualise inclusive pedagogies, the research approaches employed, and the findings obtained. Learning from these studies, we frame inclusive pedagogies as powerful practices that may redetermine how we think about success and failure—abilities and disabilities—in higher STEM education. While classroom pedagogies alone can rarely shift broader policies, structures and discourses, they can redetermine the norms and values of STEM education at the local classroom level.
There is a persistent gap in Indigenous students’ access to higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) across multiple world regions. In response, a growing number of initiatives have emerged to support this underrepresented population. This article presents a systematic literature review of programs and empirical studies that aim to strengthen Indigenous participation in STEM higher education between 2015 and 2025. Using a PRISMA-guided protocol and a PICOC framework, 29 publications were identified across international contexts. The findings show that the most effective initiatives integrate Indigenous knowledge systems, culturally grounded mentoring, community-based and land-based learning, and academic supports adapted to local contexts. Empirical studies highlight recurring themes, including epistemic tensions between Western STEM norms and Indigenous ways of knowing, structural and socioeconomic barriers, the importance of belonging, and the role of relational and culturally responsive practices. Overall, the programs reviewed demonstrate a general alignment with global frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in promoting educational equity and reducing inequalities. The review concludes by outlining methodological limitations and recommending that future research expand to additional world regions to broaden the global understanding of Indigenous-centered STEM programs.
Today’s diverse science learning environments have prompted educators to adopt more culturally responsive approaches. National initiatives such as the Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards emphasize the importance of engaging preservice teachers (PSTs) in culturally relevant curriculum design, particularly to support student populations that have been marginalized. Drawing from Testimonio scholarship, we align with scholars who elevate the value and pedagogical power of students’ voices and home experiences—stories often silenced or untold. This qualitative case study uses a three-phase approach—(1) Funds of Knowledge exploration, (2) theoretical grounding and lesson design, and (3) STEM lesson implementation and reflection—to examine how Latina/o PSTs draw on community knowledge to embed cultural wisdom into STEM instruction for students in the US–México border region. The study highlights the significance of PSTs’ awakening to the relevance of both teacher and student Funds of Knowledge in developing culturally meaningful lessons that extend science learning beyond the classroom. The implications for teacher education are significant: When PSTs recognize their cultural assets as pedagogically valuable, they are better prepared to engage with and affirm the cultural wealth of their students’ communities. Grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy and community cultural wealth, the study analyzed transcripts from family interviews conducted by six PSTs and from their conference panel presentations. A thematic analysis identified cross-case patterns while honoring unique contextual factors. Findings show that engaging PSTs in culturally reflective practices fosters a reimagined science educator identity—one that views science teaching as a culturally grounded, community-connected practice.
Children develop repertoires of practice through engagement across communities. Dominant conceptualizations of classrooms-as-containers do not make space for practices developed outside of school. Transformative conceptualizations account for lived experience, cultural repertoires, and historicity to elucidate how past, present, and future are entangled with powered systems in routine classroom interactions. I examine how the metaphor of entanglements as a lens on learning supports understanding how practices can and should be entangled with classroom learning. I ask, how can entanglements as a lens support identifying how cultural repertoires shape present learning and emergent futures? I draw on critical interaction analysis and prior analysis of a European-heritage, white child’s family culture to understand the moment she attempts to engage her white preschool classroom teacher in an inquiry practice. Despite sharing significant cultural repertoires, the child introduces a new practice unfamiliar to the teacher. I show the competent ways the child recruits her teachers’ attention, obstacles that emerge, and a resulting barrier. I use the lens of entanglements to understand child and teachers’ demonstrable understanding of the interaction, showing they are engaged in different practices while attending to the same phenomenon. While such challenges are omnipresent in classrooms, which by their nature include diverse cultural repertoires, the barrier is the result of a powered relationship that hinders children’s use of their repertoires. I therefore illustrate how analyzing one singular moment through the lens of entanglements prepares analysts and educators to understand the emergence of broader patterns of barriers or hybrid/third spaces.
This article aims to advocate for a position regarding the articulation between Paulo Freire’s problem-posing and dialogical education and Basil Bernstein’s theory of linguistic codes, as a means to reconfigure the formal science curriculum from a critical perspective, with the goal of overcoming the reproduction of social and cultural inequalities. The article presents a theoretical reflection that connects Freire’s concept of generative theme to the structure of Bernstein’s Pedagogic Discourse Device, proposing a model of the Freire-Bernstein Pedagogic Discourse Device. Recognizing that current science curricula often neglect the specific social issues of school communities, thereby reinforcing the urgency of more contextualized, critical, and socially engaged pedagogical practices, the paper argues that a dialogical and problem-posing approach can enhance the recognition of restricted codes and invisible pedagogy present in students’ lived experiences. It also highlights the role of the primary and cultural contextual field (family/community) as a recontextualizing element of the curriculum.
Both sensemaking and science literacy are goals of the Next Generation Science Standards. However, sensemaking and literacy are conceptualized in multiple ways within science education research and literacy education research. This study describes the shift in one teacher’s perspectives on scientific sensemaking and literacy in her middle school science teaching during her participation in professional development. Cultural-historical Activity Theory is used as a theoretical and analytical framework for examining how two moments of tension within a professional development setting illustrated literacy as both operational and arising from systemic contradictions. Though results are limited by the singular context of the study, they imply that science teachers’ attention to literacy may be more extensive than previously reported on national surveys, as this attention may consist of unconscious or subconscious operations, rather than deliberate actions, in which science teachers engage while planning for sensemaking-oriented science instruction.
The colonial doctrines dominating South African classrooms call for ongoing scholarly arguments revolving around the decolonisation of the pedagogical praxis of secondary school mathematics in South Africa. In contributing and advancing this argument, we utilised standard systematic procedures to review the literature and analyse findings from 36 journal articles published in the past two decades that examined the availability and/or scarcity of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the mathematics pedagogy of secondary schools in South Africa. Despite the differences in the study settings, key findings were critical to the implementation of the IKS principle cited in the curriculum and assessment policy statement document and the effects of professional development on teacher self-efficacy in the indigenisation of mathematics pedagogy. This review was guided by two (2) research questions, elevated in line with the objectives. Thus, what are teachers’ perceptions regarding using the ethno-STEM Approach to position IKS in the mathematics pedagogy of the secondary school? (RQ1). What are the mathematics teachers’ pedagogical needs and readiness for implementing the ethno-STEM Approach in the indigenisation of secondary school mathematics? (RQ2). The review established that mathematics teachers are willing to use technology in engineering-indigenised mathematics phenomena, the ethno-STEM Approach in their teachings. However, teacher self-efficacy in the usage of technology needs to be developed regarding the indigenisation of mathematics pedagogy. Thus, the implementation and integration of IKS in mathematics pedagogy through the ethno-STEM Approach is a phenomenon dependent on access to resources and professional development for secondary school mathematics teachers in South Africa.
In the context of the current global socioenvironmental crisis, it is fundamental to reflect on how we build relations with natural systems, the values intertwined with those relations, and the ethics we build based on the latter that may allow us to radically transform human–nature relationships. From this standpoint, academic sciences and religions are key frameworks we may use to ground those reflections. However, more knowledge is needed about how scientific and religious perspectives interact with each other within subjects’ views of nature in particular cultural, professional, and religious contexts. Moreover, the ontological and epistemological positions built by subjects showing different patterns of interaction between those perspectives may provide insight about their stances toward human–nature relationships and the values associated with them. The present study explores how scientific and Christian religious perspectives interact in four Colombian Biology teachers’ views of nature and its relationships with humans, using a qualitative approach and an interpretivist research design. The analysis shows that despite holding diverse religious and spiritual beliefs, all participating teachers showed a shared sense of care toward nature, blending their value systems and epistemological commitments in two distinct human–nature relational models, namely, the Stewardship and Wardship models, according to Muradian and Pascual’s typology of forms of human–nature relationships. We conclude that these teachers ascribe an aesthetic value to nature that is closely related to their ethics with respect to it, which is, in turn, related to their religious or scientific ideas to varying degrees.
Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.
This paper engages in a reflective and critical dialog with Heather F. Lavender’s study on Black girlhood and sociocultural practices in science classrooms to highlight the persistent disconnect between science instruction and the lived experiences of Black girls. Despite national calls for equity in STEM and the implementation of standards like the NGSS, science education continues to marginalize underrepresented students—particularly Black girls—by failing to incorporate their cultural identities, community knowledge, and personal narratives into instruction. To further extend Lavender’s argument, I engage in conversations relating to limited and often superficial integration of black girls lived experiences in science instruction and emphasize the impact of teacher bias, missed opportunities, and stereotype reinforcement. Through the lens of Black girlhood studies and science identity theory, this forum concludes with a call for transformative, identity-affirming science spaces where Black girls can thrive as future scientists.
This study aims to empower an Indigenous Rukai community in Pingtung, Taiwan, through the community development of an elementary school science curriculum using the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. The project sought to strengthen the continuity of culture and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) by enabling local Indigenous knowledge holders to lead educational change, serving as a method of ‘community sensemaking.’ With the community’s guidance, the research team developed a year-long place-based and culture-based science-technology-engineering-arts-mathematics (STEAM) curriculum centered on Rukai TEK of water to promote the ethnic identity of Indigenous adolescents and to understand its development. The research team identified three stages of the development of ethnic identity: initial, moratorium, and achieved stages. The nature of ethnic identity can be described in terms of its “internal construction” and “external manifestation,” and consists of six dimensions. Findings confirmed that eight upper-grade elementary students demonstrated varying degrees of ethnic identity development through their participation in the curriculum. Six students (S1, S2, S3, S5, S6, and S7) notably deepened their commitment and attachment to their cultural identity, often expressing a stronger sense of belonging and a willingness to contribute to their community. The other two students (S4 and S8) gradually began to explore and construct their ethnic identity during the course of the intervention. Collectively, the curriculum progressed by eliciting the external exploration and ethnic behaviors as well as the internal commitment and attachment, evaluation, and ingroup attitudes before culminating in the deeper understanding of values and beliefs of the Rukai community. This study hopes to develop, through the curriculum outlined here, a method for students to cultivate a deep understanding of Rukai culture and identity. This understanding plays a vital role in the future continuity of the language, culture, and ecological knowledge of their hometown and ethnic group, and in realizing the vision of sustainable nature and culture.
This forum paper is a response to Heather Lavender’s article, “The sociocultural practices in a science classroom and the influence on black girls’ girlhood.” In her article, Lavender emphasizes the need for science teachers to be more intentional in fostering Black girls’ interest and achievement in science through classroom activities. Mr. K, the science teacher of the girls in that study, admits to being challenged with connecting his science lessons to the lives of his students, especially those who are from cultures outside of his own. As a result, his Black female students display marginal engagement in science and science class activities. This issue of Black girls feeling disconnected and disengaged in school science is not unique to Mr. K’s class, but a widespread concern in many educational settings. This phenomenon is driven by several interconnected factors that I discuss in this forum.
In this position paper, we argue that while Westernized STEM education has permeated globally and are valuable for advancing knowledge, it has caused disparities amongst the indigenous and vulnerable communities due to hegemonic and subjugation of STEM colonization. To argue this point, we use the lens of Cultural Decolonization to critique the current biasness in STEM education and reflect on the need for cultural integration into STEM education at school and tertiary levels. We also explore ‘the other ways’ of knowing and integrating cultural knowledge and practices into the STEM curricula in two Global South countries, namely, South Africa and Mauritius. In order to bridge the knowledge divide in education, we argue that a decolonized STEM-IKS education can address the current global challenges by integrating indigenous knowledge in seeking integrated solutions to the many global changes that exist or may arise. This process of explicit integration means a deliberate conscientization, transformative and action-based education that will stimulate policy makers, curriculum planners, independent assessment authorities, educators and students towards a critical, social and active global citizenry, underpinned by a decolonized STEM-IKS education. The implications for pedagogy are discussed with some examples of how a transformed curriculum may be envisaged for the Global South.
Using sociocultural perspectives and Black girlhood studies, this study focuses on the only two 5th-grade Black girls in their science classroom at a private school. Daily classroom observations, interviews, artifacts, and a modified Draw-A-Scientist Test (mDAST) were the data sources collected over 11 weeks. These data aided in elucidating the participants’ perception of science and scientists, as well as the effect of instructional strategies’ on their conceptual understanding and application of scientific experimentation. Peer-to-peer relationships influenced their engagement, leadership, and perceived value during collaborative work. Though the space of their private school allowed them to experience more science time beyond the national recommendations and with an excess of classroom supplies and resources, the girls were lukewarm in their sentiments toward school science, and the degrees of cultural representation in science activities influenced their engagement in scientific inquiry. The implications of this study relate to students’ interest, their use of speech, manipulation of tools and concepts, and a close examination of the positive ways that they show up for science. Educators and researchers may exert greater effort in exploring and expanding different spaces where Black girls are educated.
This paper looks at the impact of gender on the way mistakes are managed in mathematics education. If first describes the historical interweaving of error, mathematics and gender. Subsequently, using microsociology based on a feminist and socio-constructivist paradigm, it documents and analyses both practicing and trainee mathematics teachers’ experiences of error. We identify the effects of hegemonic masculinity on contexts of mathematical teaching and learning. With respect to mistake-handling related experiences, this manifests as competitiveness and aggressiveness, which have significant ramifications for student participation, particularly in the case of women. In response, we propose metacognition-assisted solving of problems with a low floor and a high ceiling as means to move away from mathematics education for war towards the recognition of vulnerability.
