Teaching Science with Intention and Connection An Interview with Clarah Menezes

Abstract

This article focuses on teaching science through Vision I, Vision II and Vision III which is an increasingly important but understudied aspect of science literacy. Dr. Poh Tan and Eduardo Gluck, interviewed Clarah Menezes, an elementary school teacher in Novo Hamburgo in Southern Brazil. Clarah teaches Grades 4-5 within a marginalized community and most of her students have varied levels of literacy and numeracy. Dr. Tan visited Clarah when she went to Brazil in 2018 as a visting scholar. Dr. Tan and Clarah have been working together for the past year on disrupting traditional approaches to teaching science. Clarah’s new approach to teaching science is built on Dr. Tan’s framework that builds upon Roberts and Bybee’s attributes of a scientifically literate person.  Dr. Tan’s framework includes a perspective of teaching science from a relational and more than human connection with entities, including animals, nature and material. In this interview, Clarah shares her experiences, struggles and insights into teaching science by applying the three-vision framework.