Elementary Teachers as Uniquely Positioned to Facilitate Equitable Sensemaking: Disrupting Deficit-Based Narratives

• In Event: Equity in Elementary Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Problem. Science education literature frequently portrays teachers in deficit-based ways (Gray, McDonald & Stroupe, 2021), including positioning elementary teachers (ETs) in ways that emphasize their limited science knowledge, experiences, and self-efficacy. This dominant narrative focuses ETs’ education for science teaching on “fixing” problems, rather than leveraging resources, particularly outside of the domain of science; attending to contextual and cultural realities; and considering ecological systems. A deficit perspective suggests that enacting equitable and ambitious science teaching is out of reach for ETs. What would ET science education look like if we focused on affordances – of ETs’ identities, understanding of young learners, and potential to work across the curriculum – rather than their deficits?
Design. We reviewed the literature and open-coded themes, attending to how authors framed studies about elementary science education; positioned ETs’ science teaching capabilities; and conceptualized resources and abilities ETs bring to the contexts in which they work. After identifying studies focusing on sensemaking (Davis, et al., 2019), we looked for patterns across them to craft a possibility-centric vision for ET science education.
Findings. First, we describe our vision for ETs’ science education. Next, we identify ETs’ assets (e.g., commitment to children’s development) and affordances of the elementary school context (e.g., relational, multidisciplinary). Third, we illustrate how goals embedded in the vision leverage ETs’ assets and contextual affordances to support and foster equitable and ambitious sensemaking in science. Fourth, we outline principles for designing and studying ETs’ learning to align with the vision.
Contribution/Significance. This work provides an alternative, possibility-centric vision to inform science educators and researchers in our evolution toward more equitable and ambitious science learning opportunities for all students. Flipping the script helps us “see ingenuity instead of ineptness and inabilities, to see resilience instead of deficit, and to imagine future… instead of imposing failure” (Gutiérrez, et al., 2017, p. 30).

Authors

• Carla Zembal-Saul, The Pennsylvania State University

• Michelle N. Brown, The Pennsylvania State University

• Heidi Carlone, Vanderbilt University