Using Idea Maps to Characterize Epistemic Communities in Science Classrooms

• In Event: Academic and Career Pathways in STEM

Abstract

Classrooms are an epistemic community – a physical and conceptual space in which actors negotiate particular epistemologies – theories about knowledge and its limits. In this study, I examined one aspect of an epistemic community – the geography of science ideas. I investigated where science ideas originated, and how they traveled over time and through space. To analyze the geography of ideas, I created “idea maps” in order to track their introduction and treatment. The main assertion is that over time, the treatment of science ideas framed the science activity in classrooms as “public” or “private” work. The public or private framing of science then influenced how teachers and students participated in the epistemic work in classroom spaces.

Author

• David Stroupe, Michigan State University