We make the case for an emergent notion of authenticity of science based on systems theory and neo‐Piagetian thought. We propose that authentic science is an emergent property of a dynamic system of learning precipitated by the interactions among students, teachers, and scientists that occur within the contexts defined by the internal and external constraints of the cultures of the schools and communities within which they operate. Authenticity as an emergent property of the learning process challenges the basis for many science curricula and current pedagogical practices that take scientists' science as their norm and that assume a priori that such is authentic, i.e., it practices preauthentication. We argue that what constitutes authentic science can be taught neither in the traditional didactic modes nor through simulations of scientists' science in the classroom. Instead, authenticity needs to be seen as emergent and as diverse in meaning. To illustrate this point, we draw from two different face‐to‐face, teacher/student–scientist partnership programs. Both studies support a notion of authenticity that emerges as teachers, students, and scientists come to interact, make meaning of, and come to own the activities they engage in collaboratively. We conclude by considering the implications of such an analysis for science education. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 737–756, 2003

Grounded in sociocultural theory, this study explores how the figured world of science is reworked through a series of multi‐media activities that were introduced into a girls‐only conversation club in an after school program for Teens. The study is part of a multi‐sited ethnography in which we explored youths' engagement with science within three sites. In this paper, we focus on a qualitative case study of one site. We present an analysis of the kinds of resources and cultural models of science that youth mobilized as they re‐figured science together over time, and in a space usually reserved for talk about girls' issues. Our study revealed that a meaningful introduction of science into an out‐of‐school‐time (OST) space that values youths' prior experiences seemed to depend on a two‐way exchange: re‐figuring their experiences as science‐experiences; and the re‐figuring of science to include their every‐day experiences. The study was successful in helping the girls re‐figure the world of science in ways that went beyond the mobilization of cultural models tied to school science only. Through collage, video production, formal and informal dialogue, youth mobilized resources from youth culture to position themselves as insiders to science and to refigure science to include resources from their everyday experiences. Yet, that figuring was also heavily marked by time and space. Follow‐up interviews point to a limited shifting of what counts as “real science” or how the youth consider themselves in relation to science. We conclude with a discussion of the gap between youth interest driven science experiences and science experiences driven by disciplinary practices detached from the world of youth. We discuss the implications of such a tension for introducing science into OST settings with program goals that extend beyond science learning. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50: 1068–1097, 2013

An emphasis on doing science calls for rich descriptions of the kind of science that gets done in such informal educational contexts as science museums and science-focused after-school and summer programs. Described in this article is a study of an inner-city youth gardening program and of the kinds of learning opportunities that it supported and that emerged from youth-initiated actions and talk. In particular, there is an examination of the ways in which the garden environment and the experiential nature of the program gave support to the emergence of learning opportunities, while also making connections possible among science, community, and work. The description emphasizes the value of a science that emerges from participants' engagement in activities they deem valuable, meaningful, and authentic. In essence, the results of the study show that informal educational programs that do not have science as their primary goal may provide important insights into the development of learning communities in the classroom. The study highlights the educational value of a school science practice that is driven by its consumers, rather than being imposed on them, and that provides opportunities for the integration of science, work, and community. ß

Our longitudinal study unpacks how an informal summer science and mathematics enrichment program influenced the educational pathways of four first-generation college-bound students. Through the lens of identity-in-practice and navigations, we explore their figured worlds of science, positioning and authoring of self in science as they applied to the program, as they participated in the program and later, in light of their college pathways. We explore the range of social and material supports the program made available to the four youth. We also show how they became consequential and for some facilitated navigations into college and STEM degrees while others experienced uncoordinated practices over time that pushed them out of science. Our study of local struggles at three pivotal moments in time attests to the agentive side of youth as they navigate in and out of science and engage in improvisational acts to get educated despite being tangled up in a matrix of oppression. At the same time, our study calls for systemic approaches that bring formal and informal science venues together in a more seamless manner. We call for a strength-based model that recognizes and leverages youths' figured worlds, positionings, and authored selves in science across context and over time in ways that they become consequential, empowering, and supportive of STEM pathways. We also call for more longitudinal studies committed to a theoretical grounding in identity-in-practice and navigations. # 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 2016

ABSTRACT:In this paper, I address some of the unique challenges of studies of learning in museums through a microanalytic case study of meaning-making among a group of youth and a curator. Through an examination of youths' forms of participation in one exhibit, I illustrate local meaning making achieved through multiple modalities-by doing, talking, and the manipulation of the exhibit. In turn, I show how multiple on-going dialogues come to interact and constitute talk and action at the science exhibit underlining the idiosyncratic nature of meaning-making. While the dialogue examined in this paper may be considered as a rather unremarkable event in terms of learning, it underlines that the study of meaningmaking entails a focus on more than mere conversations in situ in that verbal and nonverbal interactions need to be considered simultaneously. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that museums may be best seen as one among many resources for science literacy development whose impact can only be understood through an assessment of learning trajectories over time and across space. Suggestions are made for museum design and future studies of learning in consideration of the issues raised.