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Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering

ISSN for PRINT: 1072-8325

Institutional price:	$211.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2000, Volume6

100 pages

Issue price - $42.00

TROUBLED WATERS: WHERE MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INEQUALITY CONVERGE IN THE MATH AND SCIENCE EXPERIENCES OF NONPRIVILEGED GIRLS

Laurel Parrott
Columbus Public Schools

Linda Spatig
Marshall University

Patricia S. Kusimo
Appalachian Educational Laboratory

Carolyn C. Carter
Appalachian Educational Laboratory

Marian Keyes
Appalachian Educational Laboratory

ABSTRACT

Water is often hardest to navigate at the confluence of individual streams. As they experience math and science, nonprivileged girls maneuver through roiling waters where the streams of gender, ethnicity, poverty, place, and teaching practices converge. Just as waters of separate streams blend, these issues—too often considered separate factors—become blended and difficult to isolate, and the resulting turbulence produces a bumpy ride. We draw on 3 years of qualitative data collected as part of an intervention program to explore the math and science experiences and perceptions of a group of ethnically diverse, low socioeconomic status rural and urban adolescent Appalachian girls. After describing program and community contexts, we explore "opportunity to leant" issues—specifically, expectations, access to content, and support networks—and examine their schooling experiences against visions of science and math reform and pressures for accountability. Data are discussed within a framework of critical educational theory.