Putting humanity back into the teaching of human biology

• This paper outlines the necessary but not sufficient subject matter knowledge for teaching about race in school science.
• First, teachers need to know that a psychological bias called essentialism is implicated in how people think about race.
• Second, teachers need to know the reality of race is not found in genetic data, it is found in the interpretation of data.
• Third, teachers need to know that questions about the reality of race are best left to philosophical inquiry.
• Fourth, teachers need to know about the epistemic limits and ontological inconsistencies in behavioral research.

In this paper, I draw upon debates about race in biology and philosophy as well as the concepts of ineliminable pluralism and psychological essentialism to outline the necessary subject matter knowledge that teachers should possess if they desire to: (i) increase student understanding of scientific research on genetic and behavioral variation in humans; and (ii) attenuate inegalitarian beliefs about race amongst students.