Using Video Clips to Implement Multicultural Topics of Science and Nature of Science into a Biological Content Course for Pre-Service Teachers- An Action Research Project

I feel as if I was conscious of race since elementary school. I was fortunate enough to attend elementary and junior high schools that were very diverse in a big city. However, moving to a smaller predominantly white town at the start of high school revealed something shocking to me; that I and other African-Americans were viewed more as anomalies than as inclusive members of society. My peers treated me strangely, and the curriculum, including science, seemed starkly bare of any “color”. The only classroom discussion I remember having that included African-Americans involved me defending the Los Angeles riots to my white classmates in an American history class. Even at that time, I knew that this was not normal. The preceding quote describes the first author’s experience with race as a girl and teenager. These experiences stayed with her until her adult years in graduate school. For the sake of simplicity, she will refer to herself in the first person throughout the remainder of this article. My desire to integrate multicultural topics in the college classroom spans many years. When the opportunity arose to design an action research project as a graduate student, including multicultural topics seemed completely natural to me. As an instructor beginning to use nature of science (NOS) and science inquiry (SI) in the current course, drawing on these concepts allowed for consistency with the curriculum and seemed an enjoyable challenge to embark on as well. However, I also realized that adding material with racial or cultural issues could be socially and/or politically controversial, causing potential discomfort for both me and my students (Denning, 2000). Because of this, finding ways to present such material in a non-threatening fashion was necessary. After thoughtful reflection, I felt that using video clips and reflection writing to introduce these issues may be a constructive approach.