Alliances for Epistemic Agency: Exploring Hidden Affordances of Modeling Infrastructures

• In Event: Stories, Science, and Social Change: Integrating Pedagogy and Culture

Abstract

In many science curricula, there is tension between providing access to disciplinary practices and empowering students to act as epistemic agents. To address this tension, this paper presents a case in which one 6th grade student, Hunter, enacted epistemic agency while interacting with a computational agent-based model. Hunter’s creative and intuitive work with his model deviated from the trajectory intended by the teacher, researcher, and curriculum. By illustrating how Hunter’s resistance to classroom activities produced transdisciplinary and personally meaningful learning, our analysis will challenge what researchers and educators might consider “on task” or “productive” engagement with models in science classrooms.

Authors

• Ashlyn Pierson, The Ohio State University

• Corey Brady, Southern Methodist University

• Kathryn Lanouette, College of William & Mary