Unforgetting and Reimagining: Translanguaging for Inclusive Science Futures

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Orienting to Affect, Culture, and Language in Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This proposal positions translanguaging as an epistemological foundation for creating more inclusive, socially just science classrooms for multilingual and minoritized students. Drawing on a multi-year, NIH-funded project, this work centers linguistic pluralism, community, and critical pedagogy in the development and study of future science classrooms that affirm and make visible the languages and epistemologies of students. Data from this iterative design and practice study highlight how language-rich, culturally sustaining pedagogies support increased engagement, understanding, and scientific identity among students, with a specific focus on multilingual genetics inquiry. This work has implications for reimagining long-term, community-engaged science classroom change that centers, rather than deficit frameworks, asset-based, multilingual science learning as both an end goal of and means for equity and social change.

Authors

• Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso, Mississippi State University

• Georgia Wood Hodges, University of Georgia