Justice-Centered Mentorship in Science Teacher Education: Black Men Decolonizing Science Teaching

In this critical Afrofuturistic narrative case study, I conceptualized justice-centered mentorship (JCM) in science education and studied how decolonizing science and the science classroom became a part of a Black man novice teacher’s science identity while being engaged in JCM that I facilitated as an experienced Black man high school science teacher. JCM draws on culturally responsible mentorship and justice-centered science pedagogy providing a framework organized around six tenets: relationships, relevance, race, instructional complexity, resistance, and liberation. In the study, I combined the creation of a Afrofuturistic narrative entitled Sankofa: Black Space Futures with case study methods using a variety of data that included notes and records of mentor-mentee conversations, reflective writings, curricular artifacts, and artifacts related to research activities. Findings showed that Malcolm moved from compliance for survival to finding his voice as JCM supported Malcolm’s refocusing on relationships, relevance, and race, and contextualized Malcom’s role in the Black community, which helped Malcolm center his instructional focus away from management and compliance and toward student learning. As Malcom started to notice the absence of Black scientists and Black science issues in the district’s curriculum, he adapted curricula by infusing Black culture and pursued support to ensure that his curricular decisions were informed and backed by research, taking my advice to make his curricular and teaching practice “my Own, my students’ own.” Malcom continued to build knowledge and resources by participating in both a teacher inquiry group and in a science research experience for teachers facilitated by JCM, and started to defend his choices to infuse Black culture and curricula into his own classroom while negotiating empathy and rigor and supporting his students through COVID-19 loss. As Malcom moved from repositioning to buffering to resisting, his science teacher identity embraced liberating where he actualized his voice among scholars through pursuing doctoral scholarship, expanding his leadership beyond the classroom, and innovating new pathways for science learning, and, thus, growing his teacher-researcher identity. Four conclusions emerged from these findings: Afrofuturism functioned as both an analytic lens and a data source; Border crossing between dominant Western science and Black epistemologies was central to Malcolm’s Black man science teacher identity development; Research operated as both an engine and a mirror of JCM; and JCM cultivated co-learning spaces grounded in communal accountability. The study advances Afrofuturism and futurity as a generative methodological tool in decolonizing science education research. It also expands scholarship on Black men in science education and mentorship that affirms racial, cultural, and spiritual commitments and fosters the development of science teacher identities that embrace decolonizing positionalities. The study’s implications extend to science teaching and teacher education, mentorship policy, and efforts to restructure science education toward liberation.

Author dc:creator

• Darrin Collins (24399731)

• Education, Sciences
• History, Black
• Education, Teacher Training
• Education, Curriculum and Instruction

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.32994221.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32994221