Shifting the Equity Conversation Toward Classroom Relationships: Lessons Learned From a Qualitative Case Study (Poster 9)

• In Event: Equity in Elementary Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Problem. Academic rigor is a long-held core tenant of equitable science teaching and learning as is the importance of teacher-student relationships (Parsons, 2005). However, analyses of equitable science teaching often focus on academic rigor, or responsive pedagogy, with little analytic attention to how classroom relationships are fostered.
Design. This paper reports on a single case study illustrating one K-5 science teacher’s efforts to build and sustain relationships with her students. Hoba taught at a school serving predominantly Arab American Muslim students. Hoba is Arab American and Muslim and taught for six years. I am a White American with 10 years of elementary teaching experience. I worked with Hoba for seven weeks. She and I met after each of her third-grade classes to debrief her lessons and co-design tools to support her teaching to be more responsive to students’ science ideas, as well in ways which were equitable. In our work, we defined equity as science teaching which expanded the boundaries of what counts as knowing and doing science beyond that which is traditionally acknowledged in school as “science.”
Findings & Analysis. Findings illustrate multiple moves Hoba made in her interactions with students which aimed to build and maintain relationships with them. For example, Hoba found opportunities to respond to students’ humor with humor, even as similar behavior resulted in the same students being disciplined in other classrooms. Hoba made space in her science lessons for students to share relevant stories from their own experiences. In the paper, I present examples from Hoba’s classroom teaching as evidence of these and other relational moves.
Contribution/Significance. Turning an analytic gaze towards Hoba’s relationships with students, and momentarily away from the academic rigor of her lessons, exposes powerful moves and underlying beliefs about her students that comprise a meaningful contribution to our conceptualizations of equitable science teaching. A humanizing account of science teaching which is fundamentally relational will be of interest to AERA members who are committed to promoting equity in science teaching and learning.

Author

• Christa Haverly, Northwestern University