TEACHERS' SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION PRACTICES: OPPORTUNITIES FOR EQUITY.

Teachers' explanations of scientific concepts to students are essential to science teaching. While there is potential for such explanations to perpetuate societal advantage, we argue that explanation in science education can be an emancipatory practice when considering the needs, aspirations, life experiences and background knowledge of teachers' diverse groups of students. Considering that explaining science is usually implemented as a hierarchical discourse, the purpose is to inform science education in Latin America towards teaching practices that can promote a dialogical approach to distribute the power of knowledge in the classroom. This chapter discusses research on teacher education conducted in science classrooms, focusing on how explanations in science education can offer opportunities for enhancing educational equity and access to the languages of the sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]