Culturally Relevant Science Teaching in Middle School

To respond to calls for more research on culturally relevant science teaching, we present findings from one middle school science teacher's practices in an effort to contribute to this research. We describe how a discussion lab centered on Derrick Bell's (1992) short story The Space Traders was purposively included in a lesson on scientific bias to engage middle school students in thinking about bias in larger societal contexts and in their own lives. We review literature in the growing field of culturally relevant science teaching as building on Ladson-Billings's (1995a, 1995b, 2006) conception of culturally relevant pedagogy. We then describe the context and method of our study and present findings drawn from multiple data sources. We close with a discussion aimed at both practicing teachers and teacher educators.