Employing Semiotic Resources as Identifications for Engaging in Science Literacy Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Literacy and Learning in Local Contexts

Abstract

This paper examines the extent and process by which two high school students in a suburban school in Midwestern USA identified with the literacy practices of physicists. Of specific interests in this paper are how these students chose to enact their identification with these practices and how their perception of the literacy practices of the given community extended and/or limited their choices regarding the kind of enactments needed to facilitate their entry into this community. These questions are addressed by employing a semiotic perspective of identification as a function of engaging in literacy practices within the classroom context. The paper discusses the implications for instruction and interactions employing semiotic resources to foster student identification with academic communities of practice.

Authors

• Natasha Anne Rappa, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Kok-Sing Tang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University