How Science Teachers Conceptualize Students' Epistemic Agency in Their Teaching: Two Teachers' Narratives

• In Event: Epistemic Agency and Equity

Abstract

This study examines how teachers conceptualize opening up space for students’ epistemic agency as they are planning for and reflecting on the enactment of a unit implicitly designed to support it. We recruited teachers who attended a curriculum development workshop to develop units that positioned students’ as knowledge building partners. We interviewed them before and after unit implementation to learn about their goals for supporting students during instruction. We examined the interviews for how teachers talked about their units to draw out the unique ways in which they operationalized students’ epistemic agency. Through narrative, we share how students’ seeing the unit’s coherence, being curious, and making personal connections were operationalized in teachers’ instruction. Implications for teacher learning follow.

Authors

• Nitasha Mathayas, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Susan Bromley Kelly, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Christina Krist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign