POLITICS OF SCIENCE-EDUCATION STANDARDS

Science education curriculum standards are in part a political process including conflicting philosophies, values, and priorities for what s cience knowledge is most worth knowing. In this article we specify som e of these conflicts by using an example of ''Science for All American s'' (SFAA), a project sponsored by the American Association for the Ad vancement of Science. Formed in 1848, the association is the world's l argest federation of scientific and engineering societies and has over 140,000 members. We used interviews with 20 persons (e.g., teachers, teacher educators, policy makers curriculum developers) to find key is sues of potential support and opposition. Interest groups concerned wi th these controversial issues are examined, as well as the crucial act ors and institutions for policy approval at the state and local levels . Our focus is on formal policy making rather than classroom implement ation. We conclude that political coalitions supporting SFAA will requ ire a great deal of political analysis and mobilization. This will tak e time, but SFAA was established with a long-term perspective.