Dear NARST members:

The first several weeks of the new presidential administration have seen enactments of policies that could potentially have broad impacts on the science education community. Furthermore, the executive order to eliminate DEI from US governmental agencies has impacted grant programs that directly affect many of our members, both in the US and across the globe, in terms of research and job security. We have been monitoring the unfolding situation and staying in communication with members of the NARST community regarding immediate and projected impacts. The January 27th Office of Management and Budget directive to halt federal grants, although rescinded, continues to raise concerns about access to federal funding and other governmental programs mandated for the security and advancement of all American citizens, immigrants, international partners, and friends.

For our community, we are particularly concerned about the targeting of funding, programs and researchers whose projects are unaligned with the new presidential administration mandates and menu of executive orders. These actions have the potential of critically impacting our academic freedom, career advancement and efforts to expand knowledge through research in various aspects of science teaching and learning. The NARST Leadership Team both recognizes and shares the feelings of uncertainty that this climate has created for our science education research community.

Considering this we would like to assure you that we remain firmly committed to the mission of NARST to help all learners achieve science literacy and our position that access to high quality science education must be considered a basic human right (see our position statement on Equity in K-12 science education). NARST remains committed to the following ideas as guides for the work we do in science education.

• Promote discourse and educational spaces that facilitate pluralistic self-identification and representation
• Improve access to technological infrastructure
• Promote the adoption of equity-centered curricula and teaching practices
• Design pre-service teacher and teacher leader preparation programs that explicitly address equity in science
• Improve access to high-quality teachers by funding in-service professional learning experiences that support science teachers
• Expand and support informal science learning 

Through the rich and varied work emerging from our scholarly community, research demonstrates that ‘all’ necessitates a much broader conceptualization that explicitly addresses and lifts considerations of equity, justice, community, diversity, and inclusivity. NARST will remain a place where these considerations and actions related to them represent the values of the organization and how we work towards achieving scientific literacy truly for ALL.

As we monitor the unfolding events, we encourage our community to stay in communication with the NARST Leadership Team and use this as an opportunity to strengthen our community and commitments to support each other during these challenging times. We are proud of our global membership and know that NARST is enriched and made stronger by the unique contributions of each of our members. We encourage you to connect with and participate in the events and actions of our Equity & Ethics Committee, including their well-established dinner at the annual conference. As well, the variety of the Research Interest Groups (RIGs) that have come together over the past several years can serve as sites for making supportive connections with other NARST members with shared interests, building community during these challenging times. We urge you to continue to stay informed (but not overwhelmed) by the constantly shifting situation. We encourage you to stay centered and true to your work and continue to make a difference in the broader landscape of science education research.

Sincerely,

NARST Board of Directors