Science Learning at Home: Exploring Intersections of Learning, Identities, and Engagement for Social Justice

• In Event: 67.059 - Enacting Social Justice Through Transformative Science Education Research in Various Contexts

Abstract

Objectives
The goals of this qualitative study is to explore interactions related to science learning at home between parents/caregivers and middle-school children and examine how multiple cultural perspectives influence and contribute to the intersections of learning, cultural and academic identities, and equitable engagement in science education.

Perspectives
We view access to, participation in, and inclusion of families in science teaching and learning as social justice issues. Additionally, we assert that from an equity stance, a social justice perspective seeks to ask who benefits from existing systems of oppression within science education (Kincheloe, 2008). The normalizing of discriminations against children and families from underrepresented groups in science, based on socially unjust practices that devalue cultural practices and knowledge, is a matter of equity and social justice (Albrecht & Upadhyay, 2018; Taylor, 2011). Thus, our research strives to explore and understand how an unjust system excludes families and children, and how families find ways to be empowered in and challenge a discriminatory system, in order for children to succeed. We draw from Solórzano and Yosso’s (2002) stance that social justice research needs to strive to eliminate unjust systems while empowering those who have been subordinated within them. Despite the recognized importance of family involvement in students’ academic success in science education, there is a real need to understand persistent inequities and barriers to effectively broadening participation in science education, as well as the formation of equitable, sustaining collaborative partnerships between educators and families (Epstein, 1985; Rodriguez, Collins-Parks & Garza, 2013).

Modes of Inquiry & Data Sources
We utilize ethnographic tools to understand the family’s paramount role in sustaining meaningful learner participation, with respect to interactions and intersections that shape such participation, and the evolution of learner identities, in science learning (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Gonzalez, 2002). The data sources included interviews with parents, observations and audio recording of mother daughter interactions at home and daughters’ science class works.

Findings & Conclusions
Findings indicate three central themes: recognition of, reconciliation with, and challenging of perceived norms; access to extracurricular science learning experiences and opportunities as a way to disrupt unjust systems; and resiliency as a path to empowering agency in a discriminatory system. Our findings provide insight towards a greater understanding of how families find ways to blunt unjust systems through interactions and discourses, through engagement, through choices they make, and educational outcomes learners achieve in a discriminatory system.

Scholarly Significance
This study has significant implications for broader participation of families in K-12 science education, with respect to formal and informal learning, and with a particular focus on the middle school years, when learners often start solidifying various aspects of future learning choices and learner identities (Ito et al., 2013). Implications also include significant considerations for educators, community leaders, and educational policy makers in designing effective collaborations that take into account family funds of knowledge, access, experiences in science education, and critical opportunities to build enduring learning communities with educators, students, and families.

Authors

• Ramya Sivaraj, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Bhaskar Upadhyay, University of Minnesota