How Teaching Supports Equitable and Transformative Sense-Making in Science Classrooms

• In Event: 34.088 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session: Equitable Education

Abstract

Full participation in a science classroom learning community engages students in connecting cultural practices of science disciplines to those of students’ families and communities. Such meaning-making can transform students’ experiences of science in schools, disrupting long-standing educational inequities. The science education community does not yet have viable models of instruction supporting professional learning and practice of teachers and teacher educators working to support equitable and transformative sense-making. This multiple case study draws from analyses of K-6 classrooms to address this gap by characterizing aspects of the fundamental pedagogical repertoire required for fostering equitable and transformative sense-making in science classrooms. A discussion of the importance of accessing and addressing teachers’ enactments as well as teachers’ underlying ideologies is included.

Authors

• Melissa Braaten, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Christa Haverly, Michigan State University

• Christina V. Schwarz, Michigan State University