"I'm Going to Feel Like a Failure": How Group Dynamics Influence One Black Girl's Agency

• In Event: Agency, Affect, and Identity in Science Learning

Abstract

Science learning is thought to be best supported when students are positioned as epistemic agents. Using a case study approach, we explore the experiences of one Black middle school girl, Jessie’s, epistemic efforts and the ways in which her group members’ responses to her efforts either supported or constrained her epistemic agency during small group work in two argumentation lessons. Our findings show that Jessie’s epistemic efforts were not often taken up by her peers in ways that support her epistemic agency, findings that have implications for student learning and engagement in terms of the epistemic work we ask students to engage in, and the instructional strategies that support this work.

Authors

• Jennifer Schellinger, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katarina Gomez
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sherry A. Southerland, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author