Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Schools - Softcover

Tan, Edna; Barton, Angela Calabrese; Turner, Erin; Gutiérrez, Maura Varley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226037983 ISBN 13: 9780226037981

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2012

Synopsis

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, Angela Calabrese Barton and Edna Tan 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.

About this title

About the Author

Edna Tan is assistant professor of science education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 

Review

“With its potential to be a professional life changing book, Empowering Science & Mathematics Education in Urban Schools is a must read for all individuals who have a stake in science education, including science education researchers, professional development providers, and school administrators of curriculum and instruction, so that social justice pedagogy becomes part of the repertoire of good teaching in order to strive for equity and science for all.” (Jazlin Ebenezer Studies in Science Education)

“Teachers and researchers in urban schools, the authors make a compelling argument for transformative classrooms that connect the worlds of youth with the world of school. They present timely, well-written case studies describing how many urban students are underserved in math and science. . . . Highly recommended.” (D. M. Moss Choice)

“Empowering Science and Mathematics Education makes a compelling case for rethinking science and mathematics education through a critical sociocultural perspective and rich descriptions of ‘empowering learning environments’ in and out of school. By unpacking meanings of equity, equality, and enculturation, Edna Tan and Angela Calabrese Barton offer an important counterpoint to dominant assimilationist approaches to science and mathematics education.” (Beth Warren, Chèche Konnen Center, TERC)

“Tan & Barton's stance that rather than asking students to change in order to fit into the culture of science and math, science and math should change to be responsive to the desires of students is a provocative one that raises new questions for educators.”

(Cory Buxton, University of Georgia 2011-10-17)

2013 Outstanding Academic Title (Choice magazine)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0226037983
• ISBN 13: 9780226037981
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224