Exploring nature of criticality in high school science teaching: sociopolitical consciousness in multicultural science education

In this forum, we discuss the need for multicultural education that is supported by culturally relevant pedagogy to fashion science teaching that intimately connects science content to students’ sociocultural and linguistic experiences. In Nepal, teacher education programs and teachers’ pedagogical practices view students' multiple cultural and linguistic backgrounds as afterthoughts rather than an integral part of being an effective science teacher. This kind of lack of recognition of multicultural education and cultural relevancy in science teaching fails to excite students to learn science and find its use in social change and personal transformation. We also extend the findings from a single teacher case study into the larger issues of theoretical alignments when exploring science teachers and teaching in the Global South. Additionally, we believe multicultural science education and culturally relevant pedagogy needs to go hand-in-hand if the goal of science teaching and learning is for equity, social change, and sociopolitical consciousness. Finally, we argue that multicultural and culturally relevant science education is influential theories to understand Nepali science teachers, students, and their successes and struggles. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]