From Basic to Humane Genomics Literacy How Different Types of Genetics Curricula Could Influence Anti-Essentialist Understandings of Race
From Basic to Humane Genomics Literacy How Different Types of Genetics Curricula Could Influence Anti-Essentialist Understandings of Race
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DOI：
10.1007/s11191-020-00171-1
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发表时间：
2020-11-17
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Lee, Dennis M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Donovan, Brian M.;Weindling, Monica;Lee, Dennis M.
种族遗传本质论认为，种族群体具有不同的潜在遗传本质，这导致他们在身体、认知或行为上有所不同。显然，还没有发表的研究探索，在对不同遗传学知识领域进行了数周的正式教学后，青少年对种族遗传本质论的信念是否会有所不同。也没有任何研究探索这种差异是否反映了学生种族信仰的一致变化。我们使用准实验设计(N=254名7-12年级的学生)来探索这些差距。在3个月的时间里，我们比较了从多因素遗传和遗传祖先课程中学习的学生和从他们的商业照常(BAU)遗传学课程中学习的学生，这些课程讨论的是孟德尔和分子遗传学，而没有提到任何种族、多因素遗传学或基因祖先。与BAU的情况相比，从多因素遗传学和祖先课程中学习的课堂在多因素遗传学知识上显著增长，而在遗传本质论认知、归因和信念上显著下降。从概念变化的角度来看，这些发现表明，使用强调基因复杂性的课程的教室更有可能转向对种族差异的连贯的反本质主义理解。
Genetic essentialism of race is the belief that racial groups have different underlying genetic essences which cause them to differ physically, cognitively, or behaviorally. Apparently, no published studies have explored if belief in genetic essentialism of race among adolescents differs after many weeks of formal instruction about different domains of genetics knowledge. Nor have any studies explored if such differences reflect a coherent change in students' racial beliefs. We use a quasi-experimental design (N = 254 students in 7th-12th grade) to explore these gaps. Over the course of 3 months, we compared students who learned from a curriculum on multifactorial inheritance and genetic ancestry to students who learned from their business as usual (BAU) genetics curriculum that discussed Mendelian and molecular genetics without any reference to race, multifactorial genetics, or genetic ancestry. Relative to the BAU condition, classrooms that learned from the multifactorial genetics and ancestry curriculum grew significantly more in their knowledge of multifactorial genetics and decreased significantly more in their genetic essentialist perceptions, attributions, and beliefs. From a conceptual change perspective, these findings suggest that classrooms using a curriculum emphasizing genetic complexity are more likely to shift toward a coherent anti-essentialist understanding of racial difference.