Talking Science in the Hallways: An Exploration of Teacher Learning to Design Instruction About Socioscientific Issues and Social Justice

This study reports on teachers’ experiences learning to incorporate issues of social justice into their science teaching through a professional development (PD) program offered in a large metropolitan region in the eastern USA. Reframing science learning to address issues of social justice is effective for enhancing student engagement, particularly among historically marginalized populations. This exploratory, qualitative comparative case study spanned 1 year as teachers engaged in a professional development (PD) program to offer insight into teachers’ learning processes as they sought to reframe their science teaching to address issues of social justice. The PD introduced teachers to a tool based upon two existing frameworks to support their instructional design: socioscientific issues (SSI) and sociotransformative constructivism (sTc). Analysis focused on tracing the learning process as teachers reframed their instructional practice by focusing on the goals of social justice (why teach for social justice) and instructional practices (what is teaching for social justice). Data sources included journals, interviews, unit plans, and classroom observations. We examined teachers’ learning processes guided by the four domains of the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth to examine how they engaged with the PD activities, planned and enacted lessons, and assessed student outcomes, given their prior experiences and background they brought to the PD. Findings illustrate that the what and the why of teaching science for social justice are both important for teacher learning, offering different entry points for teachers to transform their instruction. Implications for teacher education and research are discussed.