In this article I explore the case of the Mariana dam disaster in 2015 in Brazil seeking to contribute to reflections about the role of chemistry and chemistry education in environmental injustices. Drawing on stories about this disaster shared in the Dead River Podcast (2024), on wider literature and on other cases of environmental injustices…

To promote a justice-oriented approach to science education, we formed a research-practice partnership between middle school science teachers, their students, curriculum designers, learning scientists, and experts in social justice to co-design and test an environmental justice unit for middle school instruction. We examine teacher perspectives on…

Science education reforms aimed at narrowing racial achievement gaps often call for educators to make their instruction more inclusive and relevant to students' lives. Culturally Relevant Science Teaching (CRST) requires teachers to develop students' sociopolitical consciousness (SPC) in science, yet little is known about if and how science…

Socioscientific issues (SSI) such as COVID-19 and climate change often highlight the inequalities that structural racism creates. If we ever wish to equitably solve these issues, we require a population that has the scientific literacy and the sociopolitical consciousness to do so. Yet, the push for culturally relevant education has had little…

This theoretical article draws from the political thought of Jacques Rancière to trouble some taken-for-granted conceptions of citizenship education. Rancière's notion of politics and dissensus (as opposed to consensus) can lay the groundwork for a version of citizenship that challenges what is deemed sensible, visible, who is counted in…

Describes an organic chemistry course that emphasizes the practical significance of organic chemistry in our culture, and the historical development of organic chemistry as related to economic and political events. (MLH)

Describes three modes of action scientists can pursue concerning science-related social issues. (BR)

Describes cross-national research being conducted on the consequences of selective participation in politics. The research suggests that the traditional institutions of political mobilization in the United States tend to limit the participatory opportunities of the less affluent. (MLH)

In the United States, there is a long and rich tradition of professors of education addressing, in one way or another, the vital link between social issues and the educational process. This book is comprised of original personal essays in which noted professors of education of the last half of the twentieth century delineate the genesis and…