Reversing the "standard" direction: Science emerging from the lives of African American students

Recognizing the persistent science achievement gap between inner-city Afric an American students and students from mainstream. White society, this arti cle suggests that the imposition of external standards on inner-city school s will do little to ameliorate this gap because such an approach fails to a ddress the significance of the social and cultural lives of the students. I nstead, it is suggested that the use of critical ethnographic research woul d enable educators to learn from the students how science education can cha nge to meet their aims and interests. The article includes a report on how a science lunch group in an inner-city high school forged a community based on respect and caring and how this community afforded African American mal e teens the opportunity to participate in science in new ways. (C) 2001 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Inc.