Barton, Angela Calabrese, et al., eds. Teaching Science for Social Justice. New York: Teachers College Press, 2003. 197 pp.

by Mary Kirk

Teaching Science for Social Justice offers scenes from the trenches of the cultural war zone that is K-12 science education in an impoverished urban environment, and the view is at once sobering and inspiring. The authors explore the results of putting feminist theory into action via several in-depth case studies of how students learn science in after-school programs at two homeless shelters: Southside Shelter in New York City and Hope Shelter in Well Springs, Texas. This compelling book demonstrates the power of story as a tool for social change; the authors add this qualitative evidence to the quantitative data on urban education and the theoretical frameworks offered by feminist science studies. As the authors say, although the "solutions to these dilemmas about access and opportunity in science education seem so simple in theory: Create science lessons that are student-centered, culturally relevant, and deeply meaningful," putting these solutions into practice involves challenges that call for a broader lens of understanding (159). Thankfully, the authors have provided just such a lens.