Expanding Science Access: Teachers Make Change Using Their Life Stories
By Jolynn Asato, Manisha Hariani, Ben Koo, and Sumer Seiki
Our article describes our CASE conference workshop, “Expanding Science Access: Teachers Make Change Using Their Life Stories” held on November 8, 2024. Directly addressing the CASE mission for “high quality, equitable science education,” this workshop explored the question, “How can science curriculum be made more accessible and culturally relevant through teacher storytelling?”
We presented a research-based framework, transformative curriculum making (TCM). TCM is designed to address practices and perspectives in science and science teaching that have historically marginalized Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. The TCM process engages teachers through telling life stories and cultural traditions that connect and lead into the science lesson.
This TCM-focused workshop helped teachers to connect science to home by accessing their own personal, school, home, community, and ancestral knowledge that is part of their community cultural wealth. This served to address a longstanding need for science curriculum and pedagogy to make scientific knowledge accessible, connecting the “border” between the BIPOC students and their homes and communities, as well as their everyday lives outside of school.
During our interactive session, teachers used the TCM process to connect their personal, heartfelt and storied life experiences with science. Through guided practice, participants crafted their own TCM stories, exploring opportunities to connect their stories to science content and discussing tension points and challenges for TCM practice. Participants walked away from this workshop with a model to address the needs of their diverse learners and a TCM lesson to introduce a science concept taught in their classroom.
We are currently in the process of engaging with teachers to collaborate on TCM storytelling in their classrooms. If you are interested in working with us now or in the future, please contact Sumer Seiki via email: restorying.science.tcm@gmail.com.
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