Toward Equity and Justice: Many Different Voices, Cultures, and Languages in Science Education Research for Quality Science Learning and Teaching

The mission of NARST is “to help all learners to achieve science literacy.” With its inception in 1928, this organization has grown into a worldwide organization for enhancing science learning and teaching through research. With globalization, NARST, like many other educational organizations, must consider how educational research, theory, and policy can influence how the world addresses issues of equity and justice. This challenge is especially urgent at this time when science influences major concerns, such as human health, food production, clean water, and economic development in the world. It is critical that we have a world of citizens who can use their science knowledge and skills to make their world a better place in which to live and to pursue and be involved in STEM-related careers if they choose. To what extent does this belief apply if equity and justice are our goals given the meanings, unrealized potential, and continuing challenge of involvement in - and the commitment to - different voices, cultures, and languages in science education and the related research, theorizing, and policy-making?

The 2016 NARST Annual International Conference theme is a call to explore what it means to have different voices, cultures, and languages engaged in science education research. Ideally, NARST conference presenters and attendees will focus their attention, both locally and globally, in a collaborative manner on equity and justice as they relate to science education issues. Baltimore, Maryland is an appropriate place for the members of NARST to again connect and share their research about those who have been, who have not been, and are educationally marginalized, discounted, and denied so that all learners can experience equity and justice in science education. Quality science learning and teaching are the rights of every human being.