In the past twenty-five years, the number of science education researchers of African descent has grown substantially. With that growth, there has also been an increase in research examining science teaching and learning as it pertains to populations of African descent. The articles presented in this special issue offer a peak into this growing…

In this article, I detail my involvement in sociopolitical conversations as a science education researcher. I present two of the controversies in which I have been involved in recent years: Metal dust from the Port of Québec (Quebec, Canada) and the Maillé case (the case of a researcher who has to hand over to a private company her research data…

This paper is written in response to Alberto J. Rodriguez and Deb Morrison's article entitled, "Expanding and Enacting Transformative Meanings of Equity, Diversity and Social Justice in Science Education." The authors provide a historical account of science education social justice research efforts within the USA and support the need to…

As newcomers in the field of science education research we discuss our perspectives on critical scholarship in the academy. Using the metalogue approach we explore our perceptions of science education, our experiences of the barriers to critical science education research, our analyses of why these barriers exist, and imaginings about how these…

It has been more than 3 years since Christine left us. She has left a lasting legacy of her academic brilliance among the science education community. This paper pays tribute to Christine's fine research work that has shaped and continues to shape science education research in the field of questioning and argumentation.

In this article, I describe how Jane Butler Kahle's intellectual curiosity, commitment to equity and her ability to use various research approaches, to establish research and networking groups comprised of scholars from diverse backgrounds, theoretical perspectives and geographic locations, to disseminate research outcomes and findings…

This essay responds to a selection of ideas and theoretical frameworks Sharada Gade uses to conduct her study. The ideas raised by Sharada are placed in the context of the changes and experiences taking place in today's public school system. Her ideas also provide new insights into the construct of relational agency in accordance with expansive…

Lundqvist, Almqvist and Ostman describe a teacher's manner of teaching and the possible consequences it may have for students' meaning making. In doing this the article examines a teacher's classroom practice by systematizing the teacher's transactions with the students in terms of certain conceptual schemes, namely the "epistemological moves",…

Recent elaborations on cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) (Engestrom et al., eds., "Perspectives on activity theory." New York: Cambridge University Press, "1999") and its relation to organizational theories have produced a theoretical amalgam of these earlier ideas, which allow for the exploration of learning in formal…