Tempered radicals: elementary teachers’ narratives of teaching science within and against prevailing meanings of schooling

Abstract

Science educators and researchers have bemoaned the lack of reform-based science in elementary schools and focused on teachers' difficulties (i.e., lack of knowledge, interest, experience) in enacting quality science pedagogy. We present compelling evidence that challenges assumptions about science education reform and draw on a practice theory perspective to examine the stories, commitments and identities of thirteen teachers, whose beliefs and practices aligned with those promoted by science education reform documents. Through ethnographic interviews, we learned about these teachers' critical science experiences, perceived science teacher identities, and their goals and commitments. Their stories highlight institutional and sociohistorical difficulties of enacting reform-based science, the many biases, contradictions, and unintended consequences prevalent in educational policy and practice today, and emphasize how easily the status quo can get reproduced. These teachers had to work as 'tempered radicals', 'working the system' to teach in ways that were consistent with reform-based science.

Excavating silences and tensions of agency|passivity in science education reform

“…For example, Rodriguez (2010) explains that although cultural and linguistic diversity of students in the United States is on the rise, few science education reform efforts situate cultural and linguistic diversity as central aspects of their interventions or analysis. Carlone et al (2010) point to another form of silencing, that of shifting the focus or gaze in another direction. They argue that much of the literature on science education reform situates the 'problem' of a lack of standards-based teaching in teachers and away from contextual factors that inhibit reform.…”

“…High-stakes accountability structures of No Child Left Behind (NCLB 2001) led to district policies around English language development that severely limited science instructional time in Pedro's classroom and ultimately undermined the science reform effort Rodriguez had initiated in the school. Carlone et al (2010) excavate the ways I-meanings, or 'meanings (of schooling, curriculum, science, teaching are implied by institutional (school, district, or state)-level policies and practices [and] shape the everyday, often taken-for-granted ways of doing the business of school'. I-meanings tempered teachers' radical tendencies, or their abilities or desires to enact standards-based teaching.…”

“…I-meanings embedded in district-level policies framed by sanctions under NCLB, shaped the way of doing science in the school. I-meanings tend to reproduce the status quo (Carlone et al 2010). Although Rodriguez' (2010) initiative sought to boost student achievement in science, I-meanings served to marginalize science (status quo) and undermine the science education reform effort.…”

“…Impressions from the world, including I-meanings, may inhibit agency or provide new resources that expand agency. For Carlone et al (2010), the notion of agency is captured in the ways they situate 'schools as sites of struggle' wherein teachers engage in an ongoing effort to 'contest the Traditional Schooling Discourse and/or to access other, more progressive Discourses'. As a result, they see the work of teachers as deeply embedded in a 'political struggle over the meaning [emphasis added] of science education'.…”

“…Although teachers may engage in a political struggle over the meaning of science education in children's lives, that work may be deeply constrained by sanctioned ways of knowing and doing science (Carlone et al 2010). …”