ABSTRACT
I feel, in many ways, inadequate to write this chapter. My inadequacy does not come from a lack of experience as a Hispanic and minority as I have been both since 1946. My discomfort comes more from the idea that I can only speak for myself, and not for other Hispanics or minorities. The notion that each of us has a set of individual experiences to draw upon daily tempers me from making broad-sweeping assumptions about Hispanics or minorities. Each student (minority and nonminority) has a unique set of experiences from which the science teacher can draw in order to facilitate learning, an important idea to consider. This is especially true in an educational system that tends to lump together students of diverse backgrounds under the heading of minority and to provide them with labels such as disadvantaged, at-risk and underrepresented in the sciences. Such labels thereby group minority and nonminority students together and further reduce an emphasis on the individual. It is important to consider the blurring of individuals’ needs, because our efforts to improve the learning of science for individuals is focused on finding universal classroom solutions that are applicable to all students.
