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Student empowerment in an environmental science classroom: Toward a framework for social justice science education
Author(s) -
Dimick Alexandra Schindel
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/sce.21035
Subject(s) - empowerment , scholarship , science education , sociology , social justice , pedagogy , science, technology, society and environment education , environmental education , social science education , economic justice , political science , social science , law
Abstract Social justice education is undertheorized in science education. Given the wide range of goals and purposes proposed within both social justice education and social justice science education scholarship, these fields require reconciliation. In this paper, I suggest a student empowerment framework for conceptualizing teaching and learning social justice science education in classroom settings. I utilize this framework to analyze the case study of a high school environmental science classroom in the United States where the teacher and students created environmental action projects that were relevant to their community. I examine how social, political, and academic empowerment were or were not enacted within the classroom and argue for educators to give heed to all three simultaneously to mediate student empowerment while working toward social justice science education. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96: 990–1012, 2012