Abstract
This study examined the dimensions of the structure-agency dialectic embedded in students’ embodied narratives of their science experiences. As three Black high school students with developed dancer identities used what I have named “ethnodance” to author and narrate their evolving science identity, I looked for structures that hindered or supported their development as well as their agentic choices, resistance, and advocacy. I present an empirical illustration of dimensions of the structure-agency dialectic embedded in students’ ethnodances and reflection. Building on the consideration that for students whom a meaningful part of social life includes movement and dance, the theoretical argument frames ethnodance as an embodied narrative, dance as a form of cultural expression and social life for some Black youth, and identities-in-narratives as a window into students’ agentic power to disrupt normative science ideologies and carve a place for themselves in science. Furthermore, students’ ethnodances conveyed how changes to the science course sequence, physics discourse, and expectations from trusted adults limited or hindered their participation in science, and self-advocacy, choice, and resistance constructed, de-constructed, or re-constructed their competence in science.
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Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without Tiffany, Jasmine, and Fara (young people’s pseudonyms), who were an essential driving force for my desire to explore science identity authoring via dance. Know that you are enough and everything in between. Thank you for sharing your lives and presence with me. You are my inspiration and motivation to use my steps to help make the steps of others a little easier to navigate.
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This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation grant DUE-1439761.
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Chappell, M.J. Dimensions of the Structure-Agency Dialectic Embedded in Black Students’ Ethnodance of Their Science Identity Construction. Res Sci Educ 54, 119–132 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10111-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10111-y