Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy

Linda Darby

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75279

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Linda Darby ¹ ^*

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¹ RMIT University, Bandoora, VIC, AUSTRALIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Inquiries into the state of mathematics and science education in Australia express the need to make curriculum and teaching practices more relevant and meaningful to students’ lives. This vision requires that teachers understand how relevance can enter the classroom in meaningful, appropriate, and subject-specific ways. In this paper I use interview data and classroom excerpts to explore junior secondary teachers’ responses to what I call a “relevance imperative”. The data shows that relevance is a multi-faceted construct that is constructed differently by teachers depending on their socio-historical experience with the subject culture. Implications for teachers teaching out-of-field and how we conceive of teachers as subject specialists are discussed, and suggestions for future research are given.

Keywords

science education
mathematics education
curriculum
relevance
subject culture
teacher beliefs

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2009, 277-288

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

Publication date: 22 Jan 2009

Article Views: 1815

Article Downloads: 868

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How to cite this article

APA

Darby, L. (2009). Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 5(3), 277-288. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

Vancouver

Darby L. Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2009;5(3):277-88. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

AMA

Darby L. Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2009;5(3), 277-288. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

Chicago

Darby, Linda. "Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2009 5 no. 3 (2009): 277-288. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

Harvard

Darby, L. (2009). Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 5(3), pp. 277-288. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279

MLA

Darby, Linda "Translating a “Relevance Imperative” into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 5, no. 3, 2009, pp. 277-288. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75279