How Science Teachers Negotiate Identities to Manage Disconnects Between Science in and Outside the Classroom

• In Event: Research in Progress Roundtable Session 2
  In Invited Roundtable: Teacher Attitudes, Identity, and Inclusive Learning in Science Education (Table 11)

Abstract

Disconnects between science education and science in daily life have led researchers to suggest new learning outcomes for science classrooms – e.g., capacities like judging scientific expertise and recognizing scientific misinformation. Some research suggests that how science teachers make sense of these disconnects and integrate the new outcomes in their classrooms will be shaped by their identities. The goal of this study was to understand how science teachers in a small professional learning community engaged in identity work as they reflected on science education’s disconnects with daily life. My findings show that these disconnects led to diverse forms of identity work among participants – e.g., some became skeptical of their prior teaching commitments while others reinforced them.

Author

• Sam A. Evans, University of Wisconsin - Madison