Wesley Pitts
Email: wesley.pitts@lehman.cuny.edu
Degrees and Sources of Degrees
B.A., M.A., City College; M.Phil., Ph.D., City University
Profile
Dr. Wesley Pitts is a Professor of Science Education in the Department of Middle and High School Education (MHSE), School of Education, Lehman College, CUNY. Dr. Pitts earned his Ph.D. in Urban Education specializing in science education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Pitts is also a graduate of the Association of American College and Universities Project Kaleidoscope STEM Leadership Institute.
Dr. Pitts was appointed as the new Interim Dean of the School of Education at Lehman College, effective August 16th, 2024. Before that he served as Chair of MHSE and Co-coordinator of the Secondary Science Education Program. Dr. Pitts also holds a second appointment in the Ph.D. Program in the Urban Education Department - at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is currently serving as PI as the NSF Noyce-Framework on the Continuum that Unifies and Strengthens STEM (Focus-On -STEM) and a Lehman project lead on CUNY’s Computer Integrated Teacher Education. His research uses frameworks from cultural sociology to investigate how encounters in urban secondary and post-secondary science classrooms and science teacher preparation programs create success in science education. Prior to working in higher education, Dr. Pitts taught chemistry at the secondary level in NYC.
Selected Publications
- Pitts, W. (2022). Science learning and multicultural science education: Insights with which to move forward. In M.M. Atwater (Ed.), International Handbook of Research on Multicultural Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37743-4_62-1 (Section Editor: Science Learning)
- Martinez Gallard, J.A.,Pitts, W.B.,Flores Bustos, B., Ramos de Robles, Ramos, L. and Claeys, L. (2021). Latinas’ pathways to STEM: Exploring contextual mitigating factors. New York, NY: Peter Lang
- Lehner-Quam, A. & Pitts, W. (2019). Exploring innovative ways to incorporate the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework in graduate science teacher education ePortfolio projects. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 25 (2-4), 357-380.
- Pitts, W. & Lehner-Quam, A. (2019). Engaging the framework for information literacy for higher education as a lens for assessment in an ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem for science teaching education, International Journal of ePortfolio, 9(1), 29-44.
- D’Souza, A, Pitts, W., Parkin, D (2018). Assessing power distribution and the quality of argumentation in a POGIL biochemistry classroom. Journal of College Science Teaching, 47 (4), 92-107.
- Pitts, W. (2010). Turbulence, risk, and radical listening: a context for teaching and learning science. In W.-M. Roth (Ed.), Re/Structuring science education: ReUniting psychological and sociological perspectives, (pp. 99-111). New York: Springer.
