Science Education and Student Diversity : Synthesis and Research Agenda

The achievement gaps in science and the under-representation of minorities in science-related fields have long been a concern of the nation. This book examines the roots of this problem by providing a comprehensive, 'state of the field' analysis and synthesis of current research on science education for minority students. Research from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives is brought to bear on the question of how and why our nation's schools have failed to provide equitable learning opportunities with all students in science education. From this wealth of investigative data, the authors propose a research agenda for the field of science education - identifying strengths and weaknesses in the literature to date as well as the most urgent priorities for those committed to the goals of equity and excellence in science education.

Okhee Lee is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Miami in Florida. She completed her Ph.D. in educational psychology with a focus on science education from Michigan State University. Her research areas include science education, language and culture, and teacher education. She was awarded a 1993-95 National Academy of Education Spencer Post-doctoral Fellowship and she was a 1996-97 fellow at the National Institute for Science Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received the Distinguished Career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Standing Committee for Scholars of Color in Education in 2004. She has directed numerous research and teacher enhancement projects funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Spencer Foundation and Florida Department of Education. Her research has appeared in prominent journals in education including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Review of Educational Research, Review of Research in Education, Teachers College Record, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, International Journal of Science Education, and Bilingual Research Journal.

Aurolyn Luykx completed her Ph.D. in linguistic and educational anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1993, and was later awarded 'best dissertation of the year' from the Council on Anthropology and Education. She is the author of The Citizen Factory: Schooling and Cultural Production in Bolivia (SUNY Press, 1999), which has been used in numerous college courses, in both education and Andean studies. She spent several years in Bolivia working on various aspects of that country's nationwide educational reform, and later became one of the founding faculty of the Programa de Formación en Educación Intercultural Bilingüe para los Paises Andinos (PROEIB Andes), an international Master´s program for indigenous educators throughout the Andean region. During this time she also received a National Academy of Education Spencer Post-doctoral Foundation post-doctoral fellowship for study of the use of indigenous languages in higher education. In 2001 she relocated to Miami as a researcher on Okhee Lee's project, Science for All, funded by the National Science Foundation. Together, Drs Luykx and Lee have published numerous articles on science education for students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Dr Luykx's work has been published in the Journal of Latin American Anthropology, The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, and Journal of Research in Science Teaching.