ABSTRACT
Scientific literacy for all students (i.e., mainstream literacy for citizenship) has been the goal for many of the national and international reforms in science for more than 20 years. However, more recent efforts have been devoted to meeting global demands for a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce pipeline by increasing the number of students pursuing STEM degrees and careers. These efforts have focused on minorities, including indigenous people; but the focus on pipeline issues—rather than mainstream issues to grow the populations of qualified indigenous students interested in STEM careers—has left universities battling for a small number of qualified indigenous students and most countries striving to achieve mainstream and pipeline goals. We respectfully use the term indigenous peoples to refer to long-term inhabitants of a place with traditional knowledge of the place. We are aware that naming a large and diverse group also brings the “hue and connotation with which all attempts at labeling are imbued” (Carter & Walker, 2010, p. 343); therefore, when possible, we use specific proper names for specific places or peoples— American Native Indians, Australian Aboriginals, Canadian First Nations, Inuit, or Métis, Torres Strait Islanders, and so forth. For example, indigenous Australian students (Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders) scored significantly lower in science than did other Australians on the 2009 Program of International Student Assessment (PISA), an established international test with nonindigenous foundations, reaffirming that trend of underachievement found in previous PISA tests (Thomson, De Bortoli, Nicholas, Hillman, & Buckley, 2010). The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress testing in the United States for science found fourth-grade White students scoring 163 and American Indians/Alaskan Natives scoring 135 out of a possible 300 points (Mead, Grigg, Moran, & Kuang, 2010). Likewise, in Canada, indigenous students consistently score lower than do nonindigenous students in reading, mathematics, and science. This gap in science achievement continues through public secondary and postsecondary schooling. Indigenous high school students in Canada and the United States participate in advanced science courses at a much lower rate than do nonindigenous students, are less likely to pursue STEM majors in college, and are underrepresented in STEM careers (United States Department of Education, 2008; Yore et al., 2014). This gap negatively affects the economics, health, and well-being of indigenous communities as well as diminishes the vitality of the STEM disciplines. Such achievement gaps may lie in the inequalities of standardized testing—lack of authentic measures, inappropriate language demands, limited response modalities, and culturally sensitive administration conditions for indigenous students (Atkinson, 2010).
