Baxter Symposium Keynote Speaker

Sessions: Keynote Address: Transformative Science Teaching & Identifying Social Justice Issues

Dr. Daniel Morales-Doyle is an associate professor of science education and coordinator of the licensure strand of the MEd Science Education program. His research examines the potential for science education to act as a catalyst for alternative futures. Specifically, Dr. Morales-Doyle's work focuses on the sociopolitical dimensions of science curriculum, teaching, and teacher education. He was a high school teacher in the Chicago Public Schools for more than a decade before coming to UIC. The courses he has taught include: ED 217: STEM, Education, and Society; CI 531:Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for Equity in Secondary Science Education; CI 551: Practitioner Research in Science Contexts; and CI 566: Research on Science Curriculum. Dr. Morales-Doyle will also be releasing a book in April 2024 titled "Transformative Science Teaching", which reveals his vision for science education that supports meaningful learning in the sciences. In this sensible and sensitive assessment of science instruction in the United States, Dr. Morales-Doyle outlines both what science education is and what it could be. He suggests that a judicious shift in the field's goals and methods for example, incorporating practice-based teacher education, justice-centered science pedagogy, and youth participatory science could give all students, not just those preparing for STEM careers, opportunities to be engaged with the sciences, with their communities, and in the world.