Inclusiveness in Science Education: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

In recent times, scholars in different fields of science education have been deliberating on educational practices geared towards reducing biases, discrimination and marginalization of some learners due to their peculiarities. This move in education is as a result of widening gap between learners with regards to gender, race, ethnicity, disabilities, among others which has led to underrepresentation, underperformance and reduced social belonging of the minority in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This paper focuses on the prospects and challenges of inclusiveness in science education. It also posits that inadequate funding of the education sector has hampered quality delivery and challenged STEM goals over the years. Consequently, products of such education sector are vulnerable to discrimination and prejudice in STEM. It therefore suggests that adequate funding of education should be priority to any government as it will go a long way to take care of other challenges facing STEM such as unconducive environment for diverse groups of learners, teachers’ inability to update with current innovations in pedagogy, teaching practices and Information and Communication Technology among others.