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Sreyashi Jhumki Basu is an assistant professor in the Program in Science Education at the Department of Teaching and Learning, Steinhardt School, NYU. Initially trained in Human Biology at Stanford University, where she conducted research on the health and health practices of homeless youth in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Basu has taught high-school science as well as mathematics for six years in schools in California and New York. She was on the planning team for a new small school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a low-income Caribbean neighborhood, where she was founding science teacher and assistant principal. At this school, she was proud of developing a 9th grade conceptual physics curriculum that paid particular attention to student voice and encouraged student activism situated in learning physics. Currently, she conducts research on the role of democratic pedagogy in improving science education and on strategies to support the learning and engagement of students traditionally marginalized from university physics.
Project Summary
A growing body of knowledge suggests that students come to classrooms with experiences and beliefs that affect their learning and engagement (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992). A challenge for teachers is to teach in ways that allow students to express their experiences and beliefs so they feel valued and engaged, at the same time ensuring that they develop scientific expertise that they can apply to real problems and issues of social justice (Turner & Font, 2003). This type of teaching is called democratic science pedagogy. This project explores the ways in which science teachers pursue democratic science pedagogy, how their engagement with this practice influences their induction, development, and retention, and how their efforts affect student learning and engagement. Methods for data collection and analysis include ethnography, grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995). Initial findings suggest that teachers associated the idea of democratic science pedagogy with a critical perspective (Giroux, 2004), a focus on high-quality science content, agency, and principles of citizenship. Teachers were concerned with assuring that structure existed within democratic practices. They approached democratic science teaching by providing opportunities for student voice in curriculum, practice and assessment. Initial findings also suggest that student learning and engagement are enhanced in a democratic science teaching setting. When democratic lessons proceed successfully, teachers expressed satisfaction and a better understanding of their students, but challenges remain in implementation.
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