Re-framing and enacting diversity in science education: the case of college chemistry classrooms

Scholarship about the effectiveness of programs related to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in college suggests that increasing the presence of marginalized students does not necessarily result in producing inclusion and a sense of belonging in science. Recruiting and retaining marginalized students in science-related fields and comparing them with students from dominant groups is assimilationist because the presence of different people does not inherently create a diverse school setting. The central goal of this viewpoint paper is to propose a holistic view of diversity at the university level. Particularly, I discuss a conceptual framework that frames diversity as a process that entails inducing, orchestrating, utilizing, valuing, and honoring the heterogeneity of ways of thinking, doing, and being of individuals to learn. To translate commitments to enact diversity in daily teaching practices, specifically in the chemistry classroom, I analyze culturally relevant pedagogy as a productive tool to encourage students and instructors to develop and leverage a robust repertoire of thoughts, practices, and identities to learn disciplinary concepts and solve problems that matter to students. To support the operationalization of diversity in science classrooms in higher education, researchers and practitioners should identify and value the coexistence of different thoughts, practices, and identities in the school to create a safe and intellectually challenging learning setting where thinking, doing, and being different is an asset toward learning.