There is no equity in a vacuum: On the importance of historical, political, and moral considerations in science education

As a response to Fortney and Atwood’s “Teaching with understanding while teaching for understanding” (this issue), this paper challenges definitions of equity that do not explicitly deal with oppression and injustice. I argue that in order to address the problem of inequity at its roots, we must re-center the historical, political, and moral dimensions of equity to disrupt dominant assumptions about the goals of science education. The justice-centered approach I advocate requires understanding inequity as one component of social injustice and necessitates that science education be linked with larger movements for social change.