IBSE Final

Epilogue Science Teachers as 21st-Century leaders

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 161

A New Answer to the Sisyphean Question in Science Education

Hardly a day passes without a new report signaling the need for education

reform. Throughout our history, society has continually demonstrated the need

for education reform, so in one sense there is nothing new in the early decades of

the 21st century. Contemporary calls for reform consistently reference reactions

during the Sputnik era. The need for a response is accurate. However, it is now

more than 50 years since Sputnik, and as the needs of society are different, so

must the science education community’s response be different.

All of us—educators, scientists, policy makers, and the business commu-

nity—must ask and answer the perennial Sisyphean question for science educa-

tion: What should citizens know, value, and be able to do in preparation for life

and work in the 21st century?

Themes and discussions in this book have described my responses to the

Sisyphean question. I have tried to address the issue of reform at the most funda-

mental level, that of the science teacher and classroom instruction. Now, I turn to

the challenge of science teachers as 21st-century leaders.

Leadership

Leadership as discussed here is not that of a single great person. My point of

view includes a majority of individuals in science education who can provide

leadership, especially those with responsibilities for the teaching of science.

The vast and varied structure of science education and the scale and compli-

cated nature of contemporary reform suggest that distributed leadership is

essential. All individuals associated with science education must contribute to

the common purpose of achieving scientific literacy for all students.

The themes of leadership and responsibility in reforming science educa-

tion include the roles of teacher educators, science coordinators, science educa-

tion researchers, and classroom teachers. Science teachers clearly have the

greatest burden and heaviest responsibility for reform. Science teachers should

not perceive this judgment as yet another form of teacher bashing. Rather, my

comments are grounded in recognition of the essential and fundamental position

of teachers in education, the need for reform, and a deep and sincere compassion

for science teachers’ difficult task.

Defining Leadership

Leadership is difficult to define. Several definitions are provided on the next

page. Common themes unite under the theme of leadership. First, leadership

involves relationships with other individuals. Second, leadership has the inten-

tion of achieving a goal common to the group. I can paraphrase an earlier publi-

cation in which I defined leadership as an individual ability to work with others

to improve science teaching and student learning while achieving the goal of

scientific literacy (Bybee 1993).