UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In the season two opener of the Tracking Traits podcast, Penn State Professor of Political Science and Sociology Eric Plutzer shares some of what he has learned over a period of 15 years researching the teaching of evolutionary science in U.S. public schools. Since 2007, Plutzer and his colleagues have been conducting the only national-level surveys focused on this subject.
According to Plutzer, in public schools across the United States, teaching the science of evolution and climate change remains a fraught and divisive undertaking. Some teachers feel pressure from parents and citizens in their local school districts to "water down" the science, or present it as debatable opinion rather than fact. Others personally disagree with the science altogether, and refuse to teach according to National Academies standards, said Plutzer.
“We're interested in how teachers negotiate the different demands that are placed on them,” Plutzer said. “Your typical middle school or high school science teacher is in a complicated situation. They have some professional norms. Almost all of them majored in a science field in college, and they were no doubt taught that evolution is the central driving principle in modern biology and were presented with lots of evidence. And most of them feel an obligation to be true to those norms and follow the recommendations of the National Academies of Science.
"On the other hand, they're in an environment where some of those findings are contested, and they're contested primarily on religious grounds and the parents of the children in their classrooms and the citizens that pay taxes to fund their salaries may be among those that do not accept evolution and would prefer that it not be taught forthrightly in their schools.”
In 2016, Plutzer and his colleagues began conducting surveys on the teaching of climate science in public schools as well. They discovered similar issues, including cases where science teachers have told students that they don’t believe climate science is real.
“Sometimes it spills out beyond the classroom,” Plutzer said, “getting principals and school boards involved.”
For the podcast, Penn State undergraduate student Alexis Capel acted as host and interviewer. Capel is a biological anthropology major and experienced firsthand what it was like to be taught by a high school science teacher who presented climate change as a falsehood.
“A couple of my bold friends got some articles together in favor of climate change being real and sent it to [the teacher],” Capel shared. “It caused a whole discussion in class. And it was quite something to be a part of.”
The Tracking Traits podcast is a production of the Center for Human Evolution and Diversity, and features Penn State undergrads interviewing researchers about their work and personal passions. New episodes are released monthly, and are available on most podcast streaming services.
The Center for Human Evolution and Diversity is housed within the Department of Anthropology in Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts, with support from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.