To produce real and lasting change in a large
and complex social organization is difficult. To
accomplish it in a large, urban system that is as diverse
as the Atlanta Public Schools requires great effort. To
meet the challenge, the ESEP has emphasized in all of its
science education reform activities the concept of participatory
reform.
1. The first aim of participatory reform is to
ensure that APS teachers and administrators are actively
engaged in the design and implementation of the reform
effort and become vested in all its aspects. To involve
APS personnel in the identification of their own needs
and concerns, a professional cultural anthropologist, Dr.
Kathryn Kozaitis, serves as a member of the ESEP
Executive Council and is a participating facilitator in
professional development sessions for teachers and
administrators.
2. A companion aim of participatory reform is
to ensure that sensitivity is built into all aspects of
the program to sociocultural issues and differences in
learning styles and to the cultural dimensions of the
required change. Research results to date indicate that
all children can benefit from inquiry-based science
instruction, irrespective of gender, culture, or
socio-economic background. Kozaitis promotes acceptance
of change and of diversity by leading teachers,
principals, instructional specialists, and other groups
of APS personnel through needs-assessment sessions, to
help them identify their own critical experiences,
insights, and values and to apply them to recommendations
to achieve the main goal--to improve science education
for all children in the system.
3. The third aim of participatory reform is to
help the undergraduate science partners understand their
roles as helpers and change agents. To do this, Kozaitis
leads some of the reflection sessions with the partners.
4. Finally, the fourth aim is to advise ESEP
staff on how to maintain sensitivity to sociocultural
differences among the various ethnic, professional, and
socioeconomic groups involved in the ESEP partnership
with APS. The goal is extremely important because of the
diversity represented by the involved academic scientists
and college students as well as the APS population of
more than 30,000 children and some 1,600 classroom
teachers. Of the children, most live in the inner city;
91% are African-American; and 76% qualify for free or
reduced-price lunches--populations that have
traditionally been underserved by science education.
Given these facts, one focus of participatory reform is
to include females and members of minority groups among
the science partners and scientist mentors to serve as
role models for the children. Another focus is to provide
instructional ideas for teachers that show African and
African-American contributions to the historical
development of science and mathematics.
