Position Statements

NABT Position Statements are updated five years after their date of adoption and approved by the NABT Board of Directors. To learn more about this process or to suggest future statements, please contact NABT.

Equity in Science Education

Knowledge of and appreciation for diversity are essential components in understanding the importance of the many ways in which humans have experienced, constructed, and communicated ideas about themselves and the Earth they share. The membership of the National Association of Biology Teachers recognizes that we have a fundamental, active, and obligatory role in creating, ensuring, and promoting meaningful education environments that reflect the full spectrum of human dimensions so that diversity, unity, and equity are able to flourish in science education.

NABT assumes a position of leadership and shared responsibility in providing education communities with perspectives that emphasize and ensure that human and material resources are available to all participants, locally and globally. To these endeavors it is our position that:

• Diversity contributes to the richness of biological science understanding and ways of knowing, enhances our educational and scientific discourse, places historical, cultural, and philosophical frames of reference in context, and allows for our nation's educational fabric to be woven into a global perspective.
• All children must have access to an appropriate quality experience in biology education that enhances achievement and provide the knowledge and opportunities required to successfully participate in a society founded on democratic principles and contributions from diverse groups of society.
• Biology curricula and instructional strategies must address the needs of all children by incorporating diverse perspectives.
• Biology teachers must be knowledgeable about students' learning characteristics, instructional preferences, and evaluative styles as they are influenced by the student's diverse backgrounds.
• Biology teachers have the privilege of representing and exposing students to the multidimensional career opportunities in biological sciences and should assist students in reaching their educational potential.

Adopted by the NABT Board of Directors, November 2003. Revised 2009.

Downloadable Files