Abstract
We examine what we know about science learning inside classrooms in American urban elementary schools that educate predominately low-income students of colour (African-Americans and Latino/as). Mindful of a Freirean liberatory framework for education, we analyse research published in journals in the last decade that addresses classroom learning issues, what learning takes place and how, benefits (perceived and conceived) of science learning, when classroom learning is more successful and for whom, and the relationship between teaching and learning. The research synthesis points to the usefulness of various constructs, such as language, identity, hybridity and meaning making in exploring and understanding science learning in the urban elementary school classrooms of students who usually have limited access, participation and achievement in science.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anyon, J. (1981). Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 11, 3–42.
Arsenault, A., Tucker-Raymond, E., Varelas, M., Pappas, C. C., Cowan, B., & Keblawe-Shamah, N. (2007, April). Intertextuality as an identity marker. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press.
Baquedano-López, P., Solis, J. L., & Kattan, S. (2005). Adaptation: The language of classroom learning. Linguistics and Education, 16, 1–26.
Barton, A. C., Tan, E., & Rivet, A. (2008). Creating hybrid spaces for engaging school science among urban middle school girls. American Educational Research Journal, 45, 68–103.
Boykin, W. A. (1986). The triple quandary of the schooling of Afro-American children. In U. Neisser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children (pp. 57–92). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brown, B. A. (2004). Discursive identity: Assimilation into the culture of science and its implications for minority students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41, 810–834.
Brown, B. A., Reveles, J. M., & Kelly, G. J. (2005). Scientific literacy and discursive identity: A theoretical framework for understanding science learning. Science Education, 89, 779–802.
Brown, B. A., & Ryoo, K. (2008). Teaching science as a language: A “content-first” approach to science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 529–553.
Brown, B. A., & Spang, E. (2008). Double talk: Synthesizing everyday and science language in the classroom. Science Education, 92, 708–732.
Bryan, L. A., & Atwater, M. M. (2002). Teacher beliefs and cultural models: A challenge for science teacher preparation programs. Science Education, 86, 821–839.
Cruddas, L. (2007). Engaged voices–Dialogic interaction and the construction of shared social meanings. Educational Action Research, 15, 479–488.
Duckworth, E. (1987). “The having of wonderful ideas” and other essays on teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
Enyedy, N., & Goldberg, J. (2004). Inquiry in interaction: How local adaptations of curricula shape classroom communities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41, 905–935.
Freire, P. (1990). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. (Original work published in 1970)
Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. (Original work published in 1992)
Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.). London: Taylor & Francis.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano-López, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6, 286–303.
Herrenkohl, L. R., Palincsar, A. S., De Water, L. S., & Kawasaki, K. (1999). Developing scientific communities in classrooms: A sociocognitive approach. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 8, 451–493.
Hudicourt-Barnes, J. (2003). The use of argumentation in Haitian Creole science classrooms. Harvard Educational Review, 73, 73–93.
Hug, B., Krajcik, J., & Marx, R. W. (2005). Using innovative learning technologies to promote learning and engagement in an urban science classroom. Urban Education, 40, 446–442.
Kane, J. M. (2009). Young African American children constructing identities in an urban integrated science-literacy classroom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago.
Kane, J. M., Varelas, M., Pappas, C. C., & Hankes, J. (2007, April). Children’s ways of negotiating student and scientist identities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
Kirch, S. A. (2007). Re/production of science process skills and a scientific ethos in an early childhood classroom. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2, 785–845
Larson, J., & Gatto, L. A. (2004). Tactical underlife: Understanding students’ perceptions. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 4(1), 11–41.
Lee, O., Buxton, C., Lewis, S., & LeRoy, K. (2006). Science inquiry and student diversity: Enhanced abilities and continuing difficulties after an instructional intervention. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43, 607–636.
Moje, E. B., Collazo, T., Carrillo, R., & Marx, R. W. (2001). “Maestro, what is ‘quality’?”: Language, literacy, and discourse in project-based science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38, 469–498.
Nobles, W. W. (1980). Extended self: Rethinking the so-called Negro self-concept. In R. L. Jones (Ed.), Black psychology (2nd ed., pp. 295–304). New York: Harper and Row.
Ogbu, J. U., & Simons, J. D. (1998). Voluntary and involuntary minorities: A cultural-ecological theory of school performance with some implications for education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29, 155–188.
Olitsky, S. (2006). Structure, agency, and the development of students’ identities as learners. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1, 745–776.
Olitsky, S. (2007a). Facilitating identity formation, group membership, and learning in science classrooms: What can be learned from out-of-field teaching in an urban school? Science Education, 91, 201–221.
Olitsky, S. (2007b). Promoting student engagement in science: Interaction rituals and the pursuit of a community of practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44, 33–56.
Pappas, C. C., Varelas, M., Barry, A., & Rife, A. (2003). Dialogic inquiry around information texts: The role of intertextuality in constructing scientific understandings in urban primary classrooms. Linguistics and Education, 13, 435–482.
Parsons, E. C. (2008). Learning contexts, Black cultural ethos, and the science achievement of African American students in an urban middle school. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 665–683.
Patchen, T., & Cox-Petersen, A. (2008). Constructing cultural relevance in science: A case study of two elementary teachers. Science Education, 92, 994–1014.
Rivet, A., & Krajcik, J. (2008). Contextualizing instruction: Leveraging students’ prior knowledge and experiences to foster understanding of middle school science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 79–100.
Southerland, S., Kittleson, J., Settlage, J., & Lanier, K. (2005). Individual and group meaning-making in an urban third grade classroom: Red fog, cold cans, and seeping vapor. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42, 1032–1061.
Tate, W. (2001). Science education as a civil right: Urban schools and opportunity-to-learn considerations. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38, 1015–1028.
Tan, A., & Barton, A. C. (2008a). From peripheral to central: The story of Melanie’s metamorphosis in an urban middle school science class. Science Education, 98, 567–590.
Tan, A., & Barton, A. C. (2008b). Unpacking science for all through the lens of identities-in-practice: The stories of Amelia and Ginny. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3, 43–71.
Varelas, M., Becker, J., Luster, B., & Wenzel, S. (2002). When genres meet: Inquiry into a sixth-grade urban science class. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 579–605.
Varelas, M., & Pappas, C. C. (2006). Intertextuality in read-alouds of integrated science-literacy units in urban primary classrooms: Opportunities for the development of thought and language. Cognition and Instruction, 24, 211–259.
Varelas, M., Pappas, C. C., Kane, J. M., & Arsenault, A., with Hankes, J., & Cowan, B. M. (2008). Urban primary-grade children think and talk science: Curricular and instructional practices that nurture participation and argumentation. Science Education, 92, 65–95.
Varelas, M., & Pineda, E. (1999). Intermingling and bumpiness: Exploring meaning making in the discourse of a science classroom. Research in Science Education, 29, 25–49.
Warren, B., Ballenger, C., Ogonowski, M., Rosebery, A. S., Hudicourt-Barnes, J. (2001). Rethinking diversity in learning science: The logic of everyday sense-making. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38, 529–552.
Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgment
This research has been supported by a University of Illinois at Chicago Great Cities Institute Scholarship to M. Varelas, and a US National Science Foundation (NSF) ROLE (Research On Learning and Education) grant (REC-0411593) with M. Varelas and C. C. Pappas as Principal Investigators. The data presented, statements made and views expressed in this chapter are solely the responsibilities of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or UIC’s Great Cities Institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Varelas, M., Kane, J.M., Tucker-Raymond, E., Pappas, C.C. (2012). Science Learning in Urban Elementary School Classrooms: Liberatory Education and Issues of Access, Participation and Achievement. In: Fraser, B., Tobin, K., McRobbie, C. (eds) Second International Handbook of Science Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9040-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9041-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)