Supporting Language-Minoritized Students in Science Practices within a Research-Practice Partnership

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the design and implementation of educational change efforts focused on supporting middle-school language-minoritized students in science learning. These chapters take as their units of analyses the shared activity of a research-practice partnership, the co-design of a discourse-based intervention and its outcomes for students, and finally the learning of students in discursive practice. In all, this study examines one problem space across multiple levels, from district-level decision-making and planning, to teacher implementation, to student learning outcomes in the classroom, yielding a coherent, multilevel view—from policy to practice—of the possibilities for building more equitable systems of science education within the vision of NGSS. Major findings include that (a) multiple ideologies of “equity” may be present even within equity-focused partnerships, and these knotted to build axiological innovation, (b) that youths’ peer-to-peer interactions can serve to adversely position language-minoritized youth in science class, but youth are resilient to these positions, and (c) sense-making dialogue can be structured to support language-minoritized youth to deeply develop their ideas. Implications for educational spaces include the generative power of responsive, deep listening among partners in spaces that prioritize equity.