Equity at Scale? An Ethnographic Case of an Equity Initiative Within a Large-Scale Implementation Effort

• In Event: 68.017 - Equity-Focused Implementation of Next Generation Science Standards: Exploring Models of Hope and Possibility

Abstract

Purpose
This study takes a lens of "hope and possibility" towards large-scale reform with a focus on supporting linguistically marginalized students. I specifically examine possibilities within an urban district's implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and the research-practice partnership that guided it.
Conceptual Framing and Design
Although research-practice partnerships are a hopeful model for the future of education research settings (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013; Fishman, Penuel, Allen, Cheng, & Sabelli, 2013), little empirical work has investigated how researchers and practitioners, in partnership, attend the inequitable distribution of resources, capital, and learning opportunities for non-native speakers of English in the middle and upper grades, who bring tremendous resources to their US schools (Campano & Ghiso, 2011), yet who are often only understood as "limited English proficient" (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2002) or simply as "a problem" (Gutiérrez & Orellana, 2006).
The present study seeks to explain how a research-practice partnership functioned to afford or constrain the possibilities for language-minoritized students in a large, English-only US science department. As such, I asked the following research question:
How does a science education focused research-practice partnership with an expressed commitment to equity for English language learners develop its work over time?"
This study took place within a long-term research-practice partnership focused on implementing the new vision for science education (National Research Council, 2012). The researchers and practitioners in the partnership shared a goal of improving science learning opportunities and possibilities for English language learner students. The participants in this study were five researchers (including myself) and five practitioners in science education. I conducted a retrospective qualitative analysis on professional development design and implementation resulting from over 100 hours of engagement to further the equity initiative.
Findings and Implications
I found that the shared work of the researchers and practitioners supported linguistically diverse students can be described and well-understood by Engeström's theories of "knotworking" (Engeström, 2008). Particularly, I found that 1) individuals histories mattered a great deal in determining the directions of the partnership, 2) that the "center" of focus on English learners "did not hold" on its own, as Engeström describes it (p.21), without continual and collaborative reflection by all partners. These findings are of importance and significance in light of the 2017 meeting theme: Research to Action, as it exemplifies a model of research practice partnership that can focus on issues of equity for nondominant populations. The study makes a unique contribution to this poster symposium in that it explores models for implementation work at the district level that specifically focus on equity for nondominant groups. As such, my study offers design implications for research-practice partnerships in science who want to expand possibilities for linguistically diverse populations, as well as an ethnographic account of the "knot-working" that occurred in our site.

Author

• Kerri Wingert, University of Washington - Seattle