Thursday, November 21st, 4 pm, in CF 386
Dr. Caroline Alvarado will demonstrate the ways in which a course designed for future K-8 science teachers, where they are involved in open-ended scientific inquiry, can be transformed by employing Critical Race Praxis for Educational Research (Jayakumar & Adamian, 2015). She will share how a course in the physical sciences can be embedded in conversations to address the power- dynamics and dominant cultural discourse in the field of STEM. This presentation will highlight examples utilized in the classroom to illustrate how the presenter enhanced conversations addressing the lack of access and equity in science education, the role of the teacher when interacting with students, and the unconscious bias that is often perpetuated not only in the school system, but in society as well.
Dr. Alvarado is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at CSU Chico, a Hispanic-Serving Institution in Chico, CA. She is an expert in issues of power dynamics and cultural discourse in science classrooms, and she teaches physics to future K-12 science educators. She was the first woman president of the Mexico section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and she recently served as Chair of the AAPT Committee on Diversity in Physics.