Uncovering Ideological and Political Constructions of Race in Biology Education

Abstract Despite science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education policy and practice changes designed to support equitable and rigorous science education for all students, inequalities persist for students of colour. In biology education, students of colour (i.e. Native American, Black, Latine, and Asian American) contend with racialized narratives about who is good at science, policies and practices that normalize whiteness in the p-20 STEM system, and disciplinary learning opportunities that invoke racial meaning-making without addressing racism. Yet little is known about how students and teachers negotiate racial meanings in biology education and how the professional vision of science education informs these negotiations. This critical race qualitative study examines how biology teaching constructs race and racial difference to offer insights towards race-conscious biology (teacher) education. Using ethnographic field notes, teacher interviews, classroom artefacts, and policy documents from the work of biology teachers committed to racial equity, this analysis uncovers how science ideologies and professional vision of science education reproduce race-evasive biology teaching. Findings demonstrate that although teachers and students routinely negotiated racial meanings, three ideological practices of race upheld whiteness: aiming for equal science opportunity and participation, recreating imbalanced achievement narratives, and avoiding confrontation with biology’s role in constructing race. This research project has implications for race-conscious science education research, policy, and practice by illuminating structural relationships between biology and communities of colour that are reproduced through biology education. In doing so, this analysis offers realistic possibilities for biology education to engage with the diversity and unity of life for racial justice. Citation: Sheth, Manali J, ‘Uncovering Ideological and Political Constructions of Race in Biology Education’ (09 Feb. 2026), in Evelynn Hammonds, Ebony McGee, and Thema Monroe-White (eds), The Sciences, Medicine, and Technology, in Meena Dhanda (ed.), Oxford Intersections: Racism by Context (Oxford, online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025 -), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945246.003.0057, accessed [date].