Scientists Debate Claims Of Afrocentric Teachings

By Peter West

CHICAGO--An attempt to lay the groundwork for a multicultural approach to precollegiate science instruction gave way to a hot debate here over whether a widely adopted "Afro-centric" science-curriculum document actually espouses "pseudoscience."

A panel discussion organized by Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, an anthropologist at Wayne State University, for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was designed to demonstrate how African, Hispanic, and Native American influences could be infused into conventional science teaching without displacing accepted scientific truths.

Participants argued that for a variety of reasons--ranging from the need to reverse a historical bias against minorities in the sciences to the changing nature of the American workforce-science should reflect the contributions of people of color, both in the ancient...