The Inequities Embedded in Measures of Engagement in Science Education for African American Learners from a Culturally Relevant Science Pedagogy Lens
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The focus of this paper is timely and most relevant. The review of the literature is well done. In the paper, the author refers to the "banking system" which should be attributed to Freire (and is not). The "Draw a Teacher Teaching" task is compelling but no interview data from the participants is tightly tied to the drawings and/or conclusions are made without merit. The notion of tying the three "braids" together is beautiful but the data just don't support doing so. The author makes statements that are unsubstantiated. The three participants all pursued science of their own volition and their own engagement (exploring nature on their own) and not due to being engaged in science classes. This paper is more of what NOT to do than it is about engagement. The author does not make a case for how teachers CAN engage their students DIRECTLY. The author implies ways but not via the participants. There is no connection between the stories of the participants and how teachers can engage Black and Brown students. I kept waiting for this information to surface and it did not. I suggest the author re-analyze their data, provide more context of the participants' lives, and really tackle methods for engaging Black and Brown students in students. Also, no limitations to the study are provided.
Author Response
Thank you for your rich feedback. I created a table and attached it that itemizes the actions taken to address the critiques made to improve the manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In the abstract, the author(s) should clarify the research objectives, the type of research used (if qualitative, say the type), the research location, and the general character of the participants' science teachers.
In the introduction, the author(s) should also explain the characteristics of science students who are the research focus in terms of age range, level of education, or economic conditions. The examples of previous research results only show the population of students aged 20-34 years; what about intermediate science students? Based on the pedagogical study, what differentiates the impact of culture, race, and racism on science and non-science learning?
In the discussion, the author(s) have yet to include the science content used by the teacher (participants), even though it could be that students are more motivated by certain science content, especially if it matches their experiences or interests. For example, students are more interested in chemical science content that discusses solubility.
Conclusions and implications should be able to answer all research questions raised; check whether there are research questions that still need to be accommodated here.
Author Response
Thank you for the rich feedback. Attached is a table that itemizes the actions taken to address the changes you identified to improve the manuscript.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The discussion has referred to research objectives regarding the involvement of African-American students in science, but the conclusions made by the author(s) have not answered the research question:
1. How did African American educators become, and led others to become, engaged in science?
2. How are African American educators' understandings of engagement related to in/equity?
The conclusion is a collection of statements made by the author(s) to summarize all the discussion results, so there should be no references from other researchers.
Author Response
Hello. Thank you for your feedback. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
