Tracking by Triage: A Century of Raciolinguistic Distinctions in U.S. Science Education

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Tracking by Triage: A Century of Raciolinguistic Distinctions in U.S. Science Education

For a century, difference from a norm of English monolingualism—whether called a ‘foreign tongue’ or ‘language diversity’—has operated in U.S. science education research as a proxy for a distinct kind of student. This poster shares findings from a study historically examining how raciolinguistic distinctions have constituted some students as needing concrete, health-oriented instruction—a form of science education often located in lower-track courses. At various points from 1921 to the present, U.S. science education journals have projected “Spanish-speaking students” as having: (1) a deficient mentality via psychological constructs measured as prerequisites for healthy decision-making; (2) disordered living via sociological inspections of diet, home, and neighborhood; and (3) cultural deviance via anthropological theories positing languages as shaping worldviews classified as fatalistic or not-yet-agentic. Despite key shifts in epistemic practices and ethical principles over the past century, these three coordinates have persistently enclosed research accounts of Spanish-speaking students in a space of potential—locating them at a distance from students already presumed as healthy citizens and potential scientists. Prevailing critiques of deficit thinking are insufficient to recognize how ascriptions of the child’s potential to become more scientist-like continue to racialize students as not-yet-healthy citizens, making tracked instruction appear an equitable response to needs projected onto their minds, homes, and cultures. Restoring these historical tethers is crucial to unsettle raciolinguistic distinctions of who needs what type of science education and to open space for onto-epistemic multiplicity.

Authors

• Kathryn Lewkowicz Kirchgasler, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Cynthia Baeza, University of Wisconsin - Madison