“Now, I See”: Multicultural Science Curriculum as Transformation and Social Action

A case study for documentation of rich descriptive information about developing a multicultural science curriculum is the focus of this study. Three elementary preservice teachers challenge their ideas about science teaching and the urban context as they plan, teach, and assess their teaching of a multicultural science curriculum. Banks’ typology of multicultural curriculum reform was used as an instructional approach in a teacher education course and the analytical framework for this study. The findings of the study communicate three important points of discussion and implications for teacher education, science education, and multicultural curriculum development. Preparing teachers for urban schools dictates an explicit foundation and intentionality to expanding views about teaching and multiculturalism in urban classrooms, especially in the context of science education. The preservice teachers see the benefit of teaching science as Transformation and Social Action not only for their students but also for themselves as multiculturally-minded science curriculum developers.