Abstract
Research on science identity development in informal learning environments predominantly demonstrates how these environments afford the construction of science identities. In this chapter, we present a socio-cultural situative approach to identity, review literature that applied such a perspective to explore identity construction in different informal learning environments, and illustrate how we apply it using linguistic ethnographic microanalytic methods to examine in detail co-construction of identity in moment-to-moment interaction. We present three case studies, demonstrating how applying such an approach allowed us to offer a more critical perspective on identity development in different informal settings: (1) the (re)construction of students’ science identities throughout visits to a science museum, (2) emerging science identities in family everyday life, and (3) science teachers’ negotiation of identities related to out-of-classroom teaching. Based on these examples (and others), we suggest future research in informal learning environments could benefit from using linguistic ethnographic microanalysis to study identity trajectories through a situative socio-cultural lens. Such an approach can expose beneath-the-surface structures and processes that might otherwise go unnoticed, advancing a less idyllic view of learning processes in general and identity development in particular.
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
Archer, L., Dawson, E., Seakins, A., & Wong, B. (2016). Disorientating, fun or meaningful? Disadvantaged families’ experiences of a science museum visit. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11(4), 917–939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9667-7
Archer, L., DeWitt, J., Osborne, J., Dillon, J., Willis, B., & Wong, B. (2012). Science aspirations, capital, and family habitus how families shape children’s engagement and identification with science. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 881–908. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211433290
Ardzejewska, K., McMaugh, A., & Coutts, P. (2010). Delivering the primary curriculum: The use of subject specialist and generalist teachers in NSW. Issues in Educational Research, 20(3), 203–219.
Avraamidou, L. (2014). Studying science teacher identity: Current insights and future research directions. Studies in Science Education, 50(2), 145–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2014.937171
Avraamidou, L. (2016). Studying science teacher identity. Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-379-7
Bamberger, Y., & Tal, T. (2007). Learning in a personal context: Levels of choice in a free choice-learning environment in science and natural history museums. Science Education, 91(1), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20174
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Routledge.
Bricker, L. A., & Bell, P. (2014). What comes to mind when you think of science? The perfumery!: Documenting science-related cultural learning pathways across contexts and timescales. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(3), 260–285. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21134
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Calabrese Barton, A. C., Kang, H., Tan, E., O’Neill, T. B., Bautista-Guerra, J., & Brecklin, C. (2013). Crafting a future in science: Tracing middle school girls’ identity work over time and space. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 37–75. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831212458142
Calabrese Barton, A. C., & Tan, E. (2010). We be burnin’! Agency, identity, and science learning. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(2), 187–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400903530044
CAISE. (2018). Center for advancement of informal science education. Retrieved from http://www.informalscience.org/identity (CAISE website).
Carbaugh, D. (1996). Situating selves: The communication of social identities in American scenes. State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/358411.
Carlone, H. B., & Johnson, A. (2007). Understanding the science experiences of successful women of color: Science identity as an analytic lens. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(8), 1187–1218. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20237
Carlone, H. B., Scott, C. M., & Lowder, C. (2014). Becoming (less) scientific: A longitudinal study of students’ identity work from elementary to middle school science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(7), 836–869. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21150
Claussen, S., & Osborne, J. (2013). Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital and its implications for the science curriculum. Science Education, 97(1), 58–79. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21040
Crawford, B. A. (2000). Embracing the essence of inquiry: New roles for science teachers. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(9), 916–937. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-2736(200011)37:9%3c916::AID-TEA4%3e3.0.CO;2-2
Danielsson, A. T., & Warwick, P. (2014). ‘You have to give them some science facts’: Primary student teachers’ early negotiations of teacher identities in the intersections of discourses about science teaching and about primary teaching. Research in Science Education, 44(2), 289–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-013-9383-9
Davis, E. A. (2004). Knowledge integration in science teaching: Analysing teachers’ knowledge development. Research in Science Education, 34(1), 21–53. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:RISE.0000021034.01508.b8
Elmesky, R., & Seiler, G. (2007). Movement expressiveness, solidarity and the (re) shaping of African American students’ scientific identities. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2(1), 73–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-007-9050-4
Falk, J. H. (2016). Identity and the museum visitor experience. Left Coast Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315427058
Garner, J. K., Kaplan, A., & Pugh, K. (2016). Museums as contexts for transformative experiences and identity development. Journal of Museum Education, 41(4), 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2016.1199343
Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. Routledge.
Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, 99–125. https://doi.org/10.2307/1167322
Gumperz, J. J. (Ed.). (1982). Language and social identity (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
Gunning, A. M., & Mensah, F. M. (2011). Preservice elementary teachers’ development of self-efficacy and confidence to teach science: A case study. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 22(2), 171–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10972-010-9198-8
Hazari, Z., Sonnert, G., Sadler, P. M., & Shanahan, M. C. (2010). Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(8), 978–1003. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20363
Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D. D., & Cain, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press.
Hong, O., & Song, J. (2013). A new method of understanding learning in science centers: Context diagrams of learning experiences. Visitor Studies, 16(2), 181–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2013.827021
Itzek-Greulich, H., Flunger, B., Vollmer, C., Nagengast, B., Rehm, M., & Trautwein, U. (2017). Effectiveness of lab-work learning environments in and out of school: A cluster randomized study. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 48, 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.09.005
Kane, J. M., & Varelas, M. (2016). Elementary school teachers constructing teacher-of-science identities. In Studying science teacher identity (pp. 177–195). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-379-7_9.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815355
Lefstein, A., Vedder-Weiss, D., & Segal, A. (2020). Relocating research on teacher learning: Toward pedagogically productive talk. Educational Researcher, 49(5), 360–368. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20922998
Luehmann, A. (2016). Practice-linked identity development in science teacher education: GET REAL! Science as a figured world. In L. Avraamidou (Ed.) Studying science teacher identity (pp. 15–47). Brill Sense. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-379-7_2.
Mehli, H., & Bungum, B. (2013). A space for learning: How teachers benefit from participating in a professional community of space technology. Research in Science & Technological Education, 31(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/02635143.2012.761604
Mujtaba, T., Lawrence, M., Oliver, M., & Reiss, M. J. (2018). Learning and engagement through natural history museums. Studies in Science Education, 54(1), 41–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2018.1442820
National Research Council (NRC). (2009). Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits. National Academies Press.
National Research Council (NRC). (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press.
Pattison, S., Gontan, I., Ramos-Montañez, S., Shagott, T., Francisco, M., & Dierking, L. (2020). The identity-frame model: A framework to describe situated identity negotiation for adolescent youth participating in an informal engineering education program. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 29(4–5), 550–597. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2020.1770762
Rahm, J. (2008). Urban youths’ hybrid positioning in science practices at the margin: A look inside a school–museum–scientist partnership project and an after-school science program. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-007-9081-x
Rampton, B. (2007). Neo-Hymesian linguistic ethnography in the United Kingdom. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(5), 584–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00341.x
Rampton, B., Maybin, J., & Roberts, C. (2015). Theory and method in linguistic ethnography. In J. Snell, S. Shaw, & F. Copland (Eds.), Linguistic ethnography: Interdisciplinary explorations (pp. 14–50). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137035035_2.
Roth, W. M. (2006). Identity as dialectic: Re/Making self in urban schooling. Urban education: An encyclopedia. Greenwood.
Rounds, J. (2006). Doing identity work in museums. The Museum Journal, 49(2), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2006.tb00208.x
Segal, A., Vedder-Weiss, D., & Trachtenberg-Maslaton, R. (2019, April 5–9). Tensions in teacher professional identity and talk about teaching in informal learning environments [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Shaby, N., Ben Zvi Assaraf, O., & Tal, T. (2017). A student’s-eye view: What 4th grade students describing their visit to a science museum recall as significant. Research in Science Education, 49(6), 1625–1645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-017-9669-4
Shaby, N., Ben Zvi Assaraf, O., & Tal, T. (2019a). “I know how it works!” Student engagement with exhibits in repeat visits to a science museum. International Journal of Science Education, 9(3), Part B, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2019a.1624991.
Shaby, N., Ben Zvi Assaraf, O., & Tal, T. (2019b). An examination of the interactions between museum educators and students on a school visit to science museum. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(2), 211–239. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21476.
Shaby, N., Ben Zvi Assaraf, O., & Tal, T. (2019c). Engagement in a science museum: The role of social interactions. Visitor Studies, 22(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2019c.
Shaby, N., & Vedder-Weiss, D. (2020). Science identity trajectories throughout school visits to a science museum. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 57(5), 733–764. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21608
Simpson, A., & Bouhafa, Y. (2020). Youths’ and adults’ identity in STEM: A systematic literature review. Journal for STEM Education Research, 3, 167–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-020-00034-y
Tal, T., & Dierking, L. D. (2014). Learning science in everyday life. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51(3), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21142
Tan, E., Calabrese Barton, A., Kang, H., & O’Neill, T. (2013). Desiring a career in STEM-related fields: How middle school girls articulate and negotiate identities-in-practice in science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(10), 1143–1179. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21123
Uzick, R., & Patrick, P. G. (2018). Family discourse on an arboretum nature trail: Explorers, protectors, rememberers, and sticky features. International Journal of Science Education, Part b: Communication and Public Engagement, 8(1), 76–93.
Varelas, M., House, R., & Wenzel, S. (2005). Beginning teachers immersed into science: Scientist and science teacher identities. Science Education, 89(3), 492–516. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20047
Vedder-Weiss, D. (2018). “Won’t you give up your snack for science?” Emerging science identities in family everyday interaction. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(8), 1211–1235. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21449
Vedder-Weiss, D., Segal, A., & Lefstein, A. (2019). Teacher face-work in discussions of video-recorded classroom practice: Constraining or catalyzing opportunities to learn?. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(5), 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487119841895
Williams, D. R., Brule, H., Kelley, S. S., & Skinner, E. A. (2018). Science in the Learning Gardens (SciLG): A study of students’ motivation, achievement, and science identity in low-income middle schools. International Journal of STEM Education, 5(1), 8–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-018-0104-9
Wortham, S. (2006). Learning identity: The joint emergence of social identification and academic learning. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511810015.
Zimmerman, H. T. (2012). Participating in science at home: Recognition work and learning in biology. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49(5), 597–630. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21014
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vedder-Weiss, D., Segal, A., Shaby, N. (2023). Identity Construction in Informal Learning Environments: Applying Socio-cultural Situative Theory Through Linguistic Ethnographic Microanalysis. In: Patrick, P.G. (eds) How People Learn in Informal Science Environments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13291-9_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13291-9_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-13290-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-13291-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)