Angela Calabrese Barton

Math and science hold powerful places in contemporary society, setting the foundations for entry into some of the most robust and highest-paying industries. However, effective math and science education is not equally available to all students, with some of the poorest students - those who would benefit most - going egregiously underserved. This ongoing problem with education highlights one of the core causes of the widening class gap. While this educational inequality can be attributed to a number of economic and political causes, in "Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Communities", Edna Tan and Angela Calabrese Barton demonstrate that it is augmented by a consistent failure to integrate student history, culture, and social needs into the core curriculum. They argue that teachers and schools should create hybrid third spaces - neither classroom nor home - in which underserved students can merge their personal worlds with those of math and science. A host of examples buttress this argument: schools where these spaces have been instituted now provide students not only an immediate motivation to engage the subjects most critical to their future livelihoods but also the broader math and science literacy necessary for robust societal engagement. A unique look at a frustratingly understudied subject, "Empowering Science and Mathematics Education" pushes beyond the idea of teaching for social justice and into larger questions of how and why students participate in math and science.

Math and science hold powerful places in contemporary society, setting the foundations for entry into some of the most robust and highest-paying industries. However, effective math and science education is not equally available to all students, with some of the poorest students - those who would benefit most - going egregiously underserved. This ongoing problem with education highlights one of the core causes of the widening class gap. While this educational inequality can be attributed to a number of economic and political causes, in "Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Communities", Edna Tan and Angela Calabrese Barton demonstrate that it is augmented by a consistent failure to integrate student history, culture, and social needs into the core curriculum. They argue that teachers and schools should create hybrid third spaces - neither classroom nor home - in which underserved students can merge their personal worlds with those of math and science. A host of examples buttress this argument: schools where these spaces have been instituted now provide students not only an immediate motivation to engage the subjects most critical to their future livelihoods but also the broader math and science literacy necessary for robust societal engagement. A unique look at a frustratingly under-studied subject, "Empowering Science and Mathematics Education" pushes beyond the idea of teaching for social justice and into larger questions of how and why students participate in math and science.

Practical guidance for teachers aiming to strategically support the full participation and engagement of minoritized students in STEM education. In Teaching Toward Rightful Presence in Middle School STEM, Edna Tan and Angela Calabrese Barton introduce the rightful presence framework, a multifaceted approach to instruction that enables historically marginalized students to gain agency in their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. This necessary work presents practical, justice-centered STEM pedagogy that can begin to reverse the messages of exclusion that have pervaded K–12 science education. Tan and Calabrese Barton first delve into the complex legacy of systemic injustice in education, showing how forms of racialization and colonization that are manifest in schooling practices have excluded and led to the disengagement of students who have been historically marginalized because of their race, immigration status, language, class, sexuality, or gender. Through cases and vignettes from middle-school classrooms, they illustrate real-life strategies and instructional decisions that help counteract inequalities. Reaching beyond inclusion, they suggest approaches such as coplanning, coproduction, and community ethnography that disrupt the norms of the science classroom and validate the community's powerful cultural knowledge and relevant experience. Tan and Calabrese Barton show how the rightful presence framework can foster student engagement and support identity formation. This work gives teachers and other practitioners a means to critique, challenge, and disrupt underlying power structures in middle school STEM.

In recent years, Maker-centered learning has emerged in schools and other spaces as a promising new phase of STEM education reform. This book expands the current Making landscape to include urban communities whose resources have not customarily accommodated such an innovative approach. The text features longitudinal ethnographic data and compelling examples.

In recent years, Maker-centered learning has emerged in schools and other spaces as a promising new phase of STEM education reform. This book expands the current Making landscape to include urban communities whose resources have not customarily accommodated such an innovative approach. The text features longitudinal ethnographic data and compelling examples.

Rethinking Scientific Literacy presents a new perspective on science learning as a tool for improving communities. By focusing on case studies inside and outside of the classroom, the authors illuminate the relevance of science in students' everyday lives, offering a new vision of scientific literacy that is inextricably linked with social responsibility and community development. The goal if not tote memorization of facts and theories, but a broader competency in scientific thinking and the ability to generate positive change.

Rethinking Scientific Literacy presents a new perspective on science learning as a tool for improving communities. By focusing on case studies inside and outside of the classroom, the authors illuminate the relevance of science in students' everyday lives, offering a new vision of scientific literacy that is inextricably linked with social responsibility and community development. The goal if not tote memorization of facts and theories, but a broader competency in scientific thinking and the ability to generate positive change.

How might science education reflect the values of a socially just and democratic society? How do urban youth living in poverty construct science in their lives in ways that are enriching, empowering, and transformative? Using a combination of in-depth case studies and rigorous theory, this volume: Offers a series of teaching stories that describes youth’s practices of science, providing valuable insight to help teachers work with inner-city youth. Explores the importance of inclusiveness, membership rules, and the purposes and goals of good science, including utility, pragmatism, and doing good for others. Shows how science connects to the lives of youth both in and out of school. Builds on and critiques current reform initiatives in science education. Features stories taken from six years of teaching and research in after-school science programs with children and youth in homeless shelters. Illustrates how the children’s unique situations framed their constructions of science in compelling and challenging ways.