SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM - INFUSION INTO THE MULTICULTURAL SCIENCE-EDUCATION RESEARCH AGENDA

This article focuses on (a) theoretical underpinnings of social constr uctivism and multicultural education and (b) aspects of social constru ctivism that can provide frameworks for research in multicultural scie nce education. According to the author, multicultural science educatio n is ''a field of inquiry with constructs, methodologies, and processe s aimed at providing equitable opportunities for all students to learn quality science.'' Multicultural science education research continues to be influenced by class, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, an d different lifestyles; however, another appropriate epistemology for this area of research is social constructivism. The essence of social constructivism and its implications for multicultural science educatio n research includes an understanding of whatever realities might be co nstructed by individuals from various cultural groups and how these re alities can be reconstituted, if necessary, to include a scientific re ality. Hence, multicultural science education should be a field of stu dy in which many science education researchers are generating new know ledge. The author strives to persuade other researchers to expand thei r research and teaching efforts into multicultural science education, a blending of social constructivism with multicultural science educati on. This blending is illustrated in the final section of this article.