Creating New Possibilities: Supporting Identities of Youth of Color as Learners and Doers of Scientific Research

• In Event: Learning to Engage: Scientists, Engineers, Educators, and Youth in Learning Collaborations

Abstract

Objective
This research explores trajectories of developing the practices of and identification with science for high school students of color as they participate in summer science research programs. Students conducted research alongside scientists as part of the programs. I ask two main questions:

● How do students’ ideas about what science is and who can do science shift after engaging in scientific research?
● How do scientist instructors’ perspectives of science and race shape the resources they make available while engaging youth in scientific research?

Theoretical Framework
This research draws on socio-cultural theories of learning, identity and positioning (e.g. Harré, 2008, Holland et al., 1998, Wenger, 1998). It utilizes the “practice-linked identity” framework (Nasir, 2012) in order to explore how learning, positioning and identity develop in context. Science identity literature offers important insights into the types of identities offered to underrepresented youth (e.g. Tan & Calabrese Barton, 2010). Conducting scientific research allows students to construct unique epistemological stances (e.g. Sandoval, 2005) and identify as capable learners (e.g. Lehrer, 2009). Research shows that racial positioning matters for women of colors’ long-term science trajectories (e.g. Carlone & Johnson, 2007) and that disciplinary-specific stereotypes can limit the possibilities available to youth of color (Nasir & Shah, 2011). More research is needed that examines how students’ science and racial identities develop together in science spaces.

Methods/Data Sources
Programs. The three summer science research programs involved in this study contrasted in two main ways: 1) program content: race/diversity explicit vs. race/diversity implicit, and 2) research type: community-based vs. traditional (e.g. physics). Participants. 1) Students: grades 9-12, Northern California schools, 2) Instructors: graduate students. Data Sources. 1) Pre/post student surveys; 2) Interviews: students, instructors; 3) Program observations.

Results
Post program findings show that students’ ideas about science practices and who can do science shift together while engaging in scientific research. Across all three programs, participation in scientific research: 1) allowed students to add new science practices to their repertoires, and 2) broadened the meanings that students associated with science, from restrictive (e.g. prescribed) to expansive (e.g. iterative process). Findings show that developing expansive meanings of science promoted learning, allowed students to make connections between practices, made science more accessible and allowed students to identify as capable science learners. However, findings suggest a need to attend to both the science practices that are promoted and the messages youth of color receive about who can do science while engaging in research. The scientist instructors’ perspective of science (e.g. utility) and their students (e.g. social positioning) guided the design of program resources that they made available. Findings suggest that resources that support students’ science and racial identities help create new possibilities for who students of color can become in science.

Scholarly Significance
This research provides empirical evidence for the types of program resources that support holistic shifts in youth of colors’ ideas about what science is and who can do science. Findings can be applied to science classroom instruction to transform the teaching and learning of science in schools.

Author

• Tammie Visintainer, TERC