Rural and Indigenous Adolescents' Participation in Community-Based Science: Leveraging Compatible Activity Settings for Motivation

• In Event: Beyond Thematic Coding: Applications of Qualitative Methods to Advance Motivation Studies

Abstract

Rural majority and indigenous children underperform in science compared to peers (NCES, 2010). They often experience schooling as discordant from home, community, and culture, leading to lower motivation and achievement (Kumar, 2006) but may engage in schoolwork connected to community (Smith, 2013). Motivation can be understood as participation in social practices elemental to identity and engagement (Nolen, et al., 2015). From this vantage, motivation extends beyond individual perception to situating tasks within social practices of a community and within academic disciplines that shape their knowledge and identity as learners based on their experience and value of their community (Bang, 2015). We take an expanded, complex view of motivation that intertwines affect and
cognition, individual and environment (Hickey & Zuiker, 2006; Nolen, et al., 2011). This paper identifies how youths’ community participation is compatible with classrooms and serves to engage them with school science.

Research Method
This study is set in a middle school curriculum for rural and indigenous youth to explore personal and community sustainability, system thinking, and inquiry-based
science. The research sample was 348 middle school students and 20 teachers in the rural Northeast and Hawaii. All teachers and 99 students were interviewed.

Data sources include student work, interviews and field reports. Students created systems maps in groups before and after their inquiry project as visual representations of how they thought a specifically chosen community practice
worked. Final projects created by student groups examined the sustainability of that community practice. Student and teacher interviews explored both student learning and motivation. Teacher and researcher reports of classroom activities among students, teacher, and community members provided descriptions of classroom activity settings. Data sources were analyzed for evidence of student engagement and learning.

Results
Data analyses within the context of the curriculum, including participation of community science experts, indicate that students saw compatibility of community activity with classroom activity and leveraged that relationship as a source of motivation for science learning. Interactions with local science experts and focusing on authentic community practices generated positive affect and engagement with
science content as evidenced in work products. Interaction with community experts was seen as the most beneficial curriculum activity. References to these interactions
in student data serve as evidence of motivation for learning.

Discussion
Educators often view socially meaningful projects as
‘motivating’ but such curricular models must be understood in their full complexity with research designs capturing
the comprehensive picture. Many youth suggested instead of being motivated by assuming typical student or scientist roles that understanding their community through exposure to community practices and experts was a primary motivator. Curriculum necessarily engages students in multiple activity settings with competing motives (e.g., learning, interest, social connection) at different levels of
proximity to learning goals and different values. Motivation to learn may result from the resolution of incompatibility between and within multiple activity settings. Multiple data sources, research design including input from community members, and creating student work serving both academic and research purposes are critical for developing complex understandings of motivation and learning.

Authors

• Michael J. Middleton, Hunter College

• Eleanor Diane Abrams, UMass Lowell College of Education

• Erica Jablonski, University of New Hampshire

• Claes Thelemarck