Materials From Teachers or From Students' Homes: Engagement and Equity During Projects With Immigrant Students

• In Event: Elevating Student Agency to Promote Equity and Authenticity in Student-Led Projects

Abstract

Purposes
In project-based learning (PjBL), student-led science projects provide newly-immigrated students access to interact with peers (Hovey & Ferguson, 2014). Yet during remote learning in COVID, immigrant students, and all students, varied in their access to interaction with others, especially interactions with others about their science ideas presented through projects. We investigate a research question: In what ways are the types of materials used by students during virtual learning associated with engagement and equity?

Perspectives
We build on theories of situated learning, where learning occurs through investment in deep problems, interaction with materials and social others (Vygotsky, 1978). Connected productive disciplinary engagement (CPDE) (Agarwal & Sengupta-Irving, 2019) guides our framing of equity (defined as epistemic diversity, historicity and identity). Productive disciplinary engagement (Engle, 2012) guides our focus on the science practice of using and developing science ideas.

Methods and Data Sources
This study focused on six upper elementary classrooms with newly-arrived students. Four teachers asked students to select home materials (e.g., recycled materials, available kitchen, yard supplies, etc.) for their projects. Two teachers distributed materials (placing materials outside the school to be picked up) and then relied on home materials.

Data sources include 43 videos in which students led the planning and presenting of projects using teacher-distributed or home materials. Semi-structured interviews—conducted three times during the year—with teachers were transcribed. We used Altas.TI to code data with inductive codes from critical cases (e.g.,, strong emotional connection: creativity, urgency) and deductive codes from theoretical frameworks of Agarwal & Sengupta-Irving (2019). Examples of codes related to individual student and whole class engagement include Accountability: Student-to-student chat focused on project; and Accountability: Sustained focus on project. Themes of equity related to leveraging voice, cultural basis of ideas and diversity of experiences (e.g., Epistemic diversity: Experiences legitimate bases for uncertainty).

Results
Presentations of student-led projects were associated with heightened engagement. Projects that used materials from the homes were associated with both engagement and themes of equity. Although teachers perceived (in interviews) home-based materials to be inequitable, using materials from the home provided more evidence for both engagement and equity for students newly immigrated than the teacher-distributed-materials for projects. In one example, a newly arrived student from Senegal developed a slingshot device using a face mask, which related to high engagement in the chat and equity of participation (screens turned on). One student from Equatorial Guinea used materials from his home culture to create the taste “sweetest-banana-spice” by mixing spicy rice with banana.

Scholarly Significance
During remote learning, flexibility with respect to materials for student-led PjBL was associated with increased engagement and equity. More research is needed to understand ways that developing projects with home-based materials can create inclusive and rigorous outcomes for students newly immigrated to schools and perhaps for all students.

Authors

• Emily Adah Miller, University of Georgia

• Leema G. Berland, University of Wisconsin - Madison