This handbook gathers in one volume the major research and scholarship related to multicultural science education that has developed since the field was named and established by Atwater in 1993. Culture is defined in this handbook as an integrated pattern of shared values, beliefs, languages, worldviews, behaviors, artifacts, knowledge, and social and political relationships of a group of people in a particular place or time that the people use to understand or make meaning of their world, each other, and other groups of people and to transmit these to succeeding generations. The research studies include both different kinds of qualitative and quantitative studies. The chapters in this volume reflect differing ideas about culture and its impact on science learning and teaching in different K-14 contexts and policy issues. Research findings about groups that are underrepresented in STEM in the United States, and in other countries related to language issues and indigenous knowledge are included in this volume.
Dr. Mary M. Atwater is a Professor in the College of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education and an Affiliate Professor in the Institute of African American Studies, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She is involved in multicultural science education by obtaining grants, conducting research, and designing and teaching courses in the area. In addition, her work has also centered on chemical education. Over the years, Professor Atwater has worked with doctoral students and visiting scholars in the areas of multicultural science education and chemical education. She now promotes a socio-cultural- political perspective in her research work. She has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of several federally funded and privately funded grants totally over $3.9 million and is presently the PI of NSF-funded EAGER grant entitled "Exploring Racial Microaggression in Science Education". Her publications include articles, book chapters, an edited book, and a co-authored K-8 science program. She is an inaugural Fellow of the America Educational Research Association, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a past president of NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning through Research, and the 2017 Julius and Rosa Sachs Distinguished Lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University for the 2016-2017 4 Academic Year, She was awarded the 2019 Distinguished Contributions in Research Award of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, The John Shrum Award (2017) of the Southeast Association for Science Teacher Education, National Technical Association's Academy of Top Minority Women in Science and Engineering (1998), and the 1996 College of Education and Psychology Distinguished Alumnus, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. In April 2017, she was recently elected again to a three-year term as Chair of Continental and Diasporic Africa in Science Education RIG (CADASE) where she led the effort to establish CADASE, NARST's first research interest group (RIG) and served as its elected Chair until she was elected President-elect of NARST. Relevant publications have appeared in such journals as Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Cultural Studies of Science Education, Theory Into Practice, The Science Teacher, Journal of Science Teacher Education, and Urban Education. Professor Atwater has served as the editor of The Georgia Science Teacher, The Multicultural Science Educator Informer, and guest editor of the Innovative Higher Education and will serve as a lead guest editor of one of the 2020 issues of Cultural Studies of Science Education. She has served as the consulting editor of the Science Activities Classroom Projects and Classroom Activities, twice on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Science Teacher Education , Journal of Elementary Science Education, Science Activities Classroom Projects and Classroom Activities.
