Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher

Abstract

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena's developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher. Elena reflects upon her early language experiences and her more recent experiences as a preservice science teacher in elementary dual language classrooms. The findings from Elena's early schooling experiences provide an analysis of the linkages between Elena's developing English proficiency, her Spanish proficiency, and her autobiographical reasoning. Elena's experiences as a preservice teacher in two elementary dual language classrooms indicates ways in which those experiences helped to reframe her views about the intersections between language learning and science learning. I propose the language experience narrative, as a subset of the life story, as a way to understand how preservice teachers reconstruct past language experiences, connect to the present, and anticipate future language practices.Keywords Language experience narrative Á Life story Á Emotions Á English language learners Á Dual language model Becoming an urban science teacherAt the time of this study, Elena was a neuroscience major enrolled in an undergraduate education program with the goal of becoming a middle school science teacher. Elena emigrated from the Dominican Republic at the age of five, attended New York City public schools from kindergarten through eighth grade and a small private high school before enrolling at the university. She is currently a fourth-year, middle school, mathematics and science teacher in a New York City public school. To become a teacher Elena had to

Teacher positioning within the figured world(s) of urban school science

“…For example, Ingersoll (2001) identified that math and science teachers have higher job dissatisfaction than other subject areas and Rinke (2009) explored the high rates of attrition for urban science teachers. Much of the research on teaching science in urban areas focuses on preparing science teachers for these challenges of teaching in urban settings, including a focus on preservice teacher experiences (e.g., Rivera Maulucci, 2011) and preparation (e.g., Chen & Mensah, 2018; Tobin et al, 1999), new science teachers (e.g., Davis et al, 2006; Marco‐Bujosa, et al, 2020), and alternative certification programs (e.g., Proweller & Mitchener, 2004). However, despite these challenges, urban schools are simultaneously sites of hope and possibilities, as Barton et al (2014) urge researchers to remember in their overview of science education in urban areas.…”