Analysis

1. Figured Worlds Urban Girls’ Merging Science Practices Angela Calabrese Barton1, PhD(PI); Ann E. Rivet, PhD; Edna Tan, Meghan Groome, Doctoral candidatesDepartment of Mathematics, Science, and Technology -- Teachers College Columbia University525 W. 120th St., New York, NY 100271acb33@columbia.edu, (212) 678-8225 NSF# 0429109 Abstract In this research project, we investigate the science practices in which high poverty urban middle-school girls engage in their science classrooms, to understand how these practices are supported by reform-based pedagogical strategies, and to explore the relationship between girls’ science practices and science learning. • Objectives • To document, describe and analyze high-poverty urban girls’ merging science practices in the context of urban ecology and body systems • To document and describe reform-based pedagogical strategies that help girls to leverage their science practices in their efforts to engage meaningfullyin science Findings • Merging Practices: • Blends social worlds of girls with worlds of school science • Are extended narratives made up of a cycle of actions and intentions • Builds upon and extends existing resources and identities available in the figured world of school science, either by recruiting novel resources/identities or authorizing previously unsanctioned ones • Practices have both individual and social outcomes • Types of Practices • Making a product • Story telling • Making new rules • Questioning • Playing with • Aligning • identity oneself Third space Social worlds Worlds of school science Merging Science Practice • Changes in Discourse • Extending • Facilitating • Negotiating Context • Two high poverty middle schools in the Bronx and Harlem • Commitment to equity • Majority African American and Hispanic enrollment • Adoption of reform based curriculum Conceptual Framework We have drawn on research in literacy studies around literacy as a social practice and the conceptualization of youths’ literacy practices. We assert that one way to better understand how urban youth appropriate, organize, and activate scientific literacy is by documenting and analyzing what we refer to as their “science practices'. In applying a science practices lens, we view “engagement in science” as having three parts directly implicated in science learning : developing conceptual understandings of scientific concepts (meaning-making); developing and using the habits of mind that reflect a propensity towards scientific thinking (expression of scientific identity); and doing science in authentic ways (participation). Science practices, which can be understood at both a macro and micro analytic level, are deeply grounded in context (i.e., cultural background, peer groups, learning environment, etc.) and content (i.e., the study of food and ecology). We have operationalized science practices through three constructs: (1) Resources available for engaging in science, (2) Strategies students use to activate those resources, and (3) Events and spaces where science engagement takes place. Analytic Model of Girls’ Merging Science Practices • Context Identities Identities include who girls are and want to become. Identities shape how girls interact in science class and the goals and expectations they hold for themselves and others. Identity categories drawn from include: Potential Scientists, “Other smart kids”, “I don’t know” students, “Outsiders”, “Inside outsiders” (Costa, 1995) Classroom School Curricular Positionality Third Space Pathways Methods Year 1 - Identify girls’ practices in the classroom and how they leverage them in support of learning Year 2 - Identify reform based pedagogical strategies that support girls’ science practices Year 3 - To test pedagogical strategies that facilitate girls’ science practices across sites/curricula Analysis Open and closed coding from two perspectives • Resources Appropriated • Outcomes • 1. Extended Agency • 2. Deeper understanding • Third Space • 1. Authority expressed • 2. Identity supported • 3.Extended resources leveraged • Classroom • Funds of knowledge • [epistemic authority] • Classroom knowledge • Relational authority with • -Teacher • -peers • Materials in the classroom • Fieldtrips • Individual • Funds of knowledge • [narrative authority] • Community knowledge • Dispositions and • ways of talking/acting/being • Personal and family values • Talents and Interests manifested byintentioned activities actions teacher & peer response • Event Guided • Event Maps • Shifts in episodes • Chains of activities • Analysis of selected events • Identity • Structure • meaning making • Purpose/function • Case Guided • Portraiture • Family background • School experiences • Social relationships • Authority/ participation • Meaning making (skills, content, habits of mind, culture) • Linking portraits with events Supporting Instructional Practice: Year II • Specific Lessons from LIFE Curriculum • M1L3 – salad extension • M1L8,12,13 – interviewing green market farmer and produce manager • M3 – inviting family experts for panel 4 Pedagogical Approaches Grounded in 2 Adaptations: 1. Multiple Expertise 2. Science Narratives in Our Lives 1. Sharing StoriesPersonal stories, oral histories or community panels that involve role playing that extends beyond roles in science classroom to bring in student stories 2.Role Play Taking on new roles/identities and can involve community or personal expertise 3. Fieldtrips Extending resources for engaging in/doing science in the community (not just “seeing science”) as well as blending of science and community 4. myLIFE Portfolio Five selected pieces of work that showcase student community knowledge and their relationship with science that can be used as an exit project. • Identified Girls’ Practices • Making a Product • Playing with Identities • Aligning Oneself • Story Telling • Question-Asking • M1L8 M1L12 M1L13 • -Debate on organic versus industrial farming with assigned roles for each panel • M2L4 - Design a package and then debate on the best design • M3 - Anti-smokingskit Axial and selective coding within and across perspectives • M1L8 M1L12 M1L13 • - Fieldtrip to the green market and supermarket, comparing and taste-testing the produce Reflection pieces and selected extended homework pieces related to the above lessons can be used for the portfolio. • Project Website: http://www.columbia.edu/~acb33/ • Symposium at NARST, San Francisco, CA April 2006 • Urban Girls’ Science Practices (402324): Strand 6 – Colloquium • Panelists: Angela Calabrese Barton, Ann Rivet, Meghan Groome, and Edna Tan, Teachers College Columbia • Discussants: Phillip Bell, University of Washington and Leoni Rennie, Curtin University • Paper presentations at AERA, San Francisco, CA April 2006 • Calabrese Barton, A., Tan, E., Rivet, A., & Groome, M. (2006). Urban girls’ merging science practices. • Tan, E., Calabrese Barton, A. & Rivet. A. (2006). Understanding how girls’ identities shape their science practices. • Rivet, A. & Calabrese Barton, A. (2006). Urban girls’ science practices: Changing classroom discourse. • Groome, M., Calabrese Barton, A. & Rivet, A. (2006). On the edge: Two girls negotiate participation in an urban middle school science classroom. • Discussant: Elizabeth Moje, University of Michigan Year II Data Collection Guidelines • Strategic & Intentioned Use of Resources • What resources (funds of knowledge, traditional non-traditional) arebeing leveraged? • How, when and by whom are these resources drawn upon? • What are the individual and social outcomes resulting from the use of these resources? • Supported Identities • Do pedagogical adaptations support these intended outcomes? • o Who is supported and who is not supported? • o How are these intended outcomes supported?