“It isn't no slang that can be said about this stuff”: Language, identity, and appropriating science discourse

Abstract

This investigation explores how underrepresented urban students made sense of their first experience with high school science. The study sought to identify how students' assimilation into the science classroom reflected their interpretation of science itself in relation to their academic identities. The primary objectives were to examine students' responses to the epistemic, behavioral, and discursive norms of the science classroom. At the completion of the academic year, 29 students were interviewed regarding their experiences in a ninth and tenth-grade life science course. The results indicate that students experienced relative ease in appropriating the epistemic and cultural behaviors of science, whereas they expressed a great deal of difficulty in appropriating the discursive practices of science. The implications of these findings reflect the broader need to place greater emphasis on the relationship between students' identity and their scientific literacy development. ß 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 2006

Double talk: Synthesizing everyday and science language in the classroom

“…Studies indicate how the symbolic relationships between students' language and language valued in the classroom were often in conflict for minority students (Brown, 2004(Brown, , 2006Fordham & Ogbu, 1986;Malcolm, 1989). This study highlighted how the teacher's careful use of classroom language provided students with opportunities to appropriate the language of science in a variety of forms.…”

“…This use of everyday and scientific forms of language becomes pertinent when considering how students' experience with scientific language has served as a gatekeeper to student learning (Brown, 2004(Brown, , 2006Varelas et al, 2002). Research has demonstrated that perhaps the most contentious aspect of minority children's experiences in classrooms involves the conflicting features of their communicative style with those valued by the teacher and classroom (Gee, 1999;Malcolm, 1989;Williams, 1991).…”

Repensar el currículo en el componente lingüístico de un pregrado en educación bilingüe

“…Thus, as ironic as it might seem, it is by exposing the underprivileged to the discourses of the dominant cultural capital that social mobility can be made possible (Brown, 2006). Curriculum, paradoxically, becomes a factor that both helps individuals conform to the existing social structures and emancipate from them, and it is through this clash between freedom and conformance that curriculum/ schooling are shaping the agentive roles of learners.…”

Science Literacy for All Students: Language, Culture, and Knowledge about Nature and Naturally Occurring Events

“…This perspective tended to emphasize science learning as mainly the challenge of existing prior knowledge and the acquisition of conceptual knowledge (assimilation of new ideas into an existing conceptual network or restructuring the conceptual network to accommodate discrepant ideas) and downplayed cultural differences in learners and the influence of different cultural contexts on learning. However, there has been a growing awareness of differences amongst learners' identities, values, and communication resources for learning that affect their interest and progress in the subject (Allen & Crawley, 1998;Brown, 2006;Kawagley, Norris-Tull, & Norris-Tull, 1998;Sutherland, 2002). Aikenhead (2003: 53) suggested that even many mainstream students view science as a "foreign culture that does not engage their self-identities" and lacking cultural relevance and that students are likely to respond more favorably to authentic inquiries that connect to their cultures, lives, beliefs, and values.…”