Exploring the attitudes of preservice secondary science teachers towards implementing equity, diversity and inclusion in science education

Abstract

School boards throughout Ontario have a documented history of instances where both educators and students from historically marginalized communities have encountered discrimination, racism, homophobia, and/or transphobia. Over the past two decades, the ideas of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) have been formally articulated as primary objectives within elementary, intermediate, and secondary classrooms in the province. Given the demographic disparities between larger urban cities and smaller cities within Ontario, focusing on pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) in smaller settings is essential to highlight the unique challenges PSSTs may face in navigating homogenous environments most often found in smaller cities. The hope them is to empower personalized strategies to address potential biases and ensure equitable teaching practices, thereby fostering a more EDI driven science education landscape in smaller cities and schoolboards. This thesis aims to disseminate findings that delved into the attitudes of seven secondary pre-service science teachers (PSST) towards learning about Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the Bachelor of Education program in a Southeastern city in Ontario. This study was grounded in critical pedagogy and culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy and was guided by the following research questions: (1) What attitudes do secondary PSSTs hold regarding learning about EDI in their content area? (2) How do secondary PSSTs conceptualize EDI within the contexts of science classrooms? Implementing a case study, the two research questions were explored through focus groups. Findings highlight PSSTs awareness of EDI and the factors that influence PSSTs attitudes towards EDI in their content area but struggle to understand the relevance and importance of EDI. This study is important as it sheds light on the critical need to address EDI in science teacher education to establish critical teaching for safe, EDI focused classrooms.