Date of Award

2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

David E. Fastovsky

Abstract

This dissertation is an extended prescription for the inclusion of social justice in high school biology (HSB) curricula. Chapter 1 is context: a review of social injustice (mainly racism) in the US, and the specious scientific justifications for it. Chapter 2 explores how three veteran teachers introduce social justice in HSB classes. A case-study, semi-constructed interview-based approach is used. Chapter 3, the culmination of these ideas, adduces a practical curriculum module that provides the theory, lessons and activities for HSB student exploration the inferior science used to sustain racial inequities. The dissertation thus reviews the moral imperatives for introducing social justice in HSB classes (Chapter 1), assesses existing means by which it has been introduced (Chapter 2), and proposes a curriculum module (Chapter 3) to allow students to see how poor science has ultimately led to ~400 years of incalculable social damage.

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Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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