Investigating Secondary Science Teachers’ Beliefs About Multiculturalism and its Implementation in the Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore secondary science teachers’ beliefs about multiculturalism and its implementation in their classrooms. Participants included nine secondary science teachers, with experience ranging from 1 to 15 years of teaching. Data were collected through interviews, using a semi-structured interview protocol (Kvale, 1996). The interviews were coded, analyzed, and grouped into five themes aligned with the multicultural dimensions developed by Banks and Banks (2007): Content Integration, Knowledge Construction, Prejudice Reduction, Equity Pedagogy, and Empowering School Culture. Results of the research study indicated these participants harbored a general misconception that there was only one science; traditionally that has meant a Western Modern Science (WMS: Cobern & Loving, 2001). The research also suggests the participants in this study had limited knowledge pertaining to multiculturalism in their science classrooms. To these participants, Prejudice Reduction and Equity Pedagogy were the only two dimensions that were important when teaching science content.