Abstract

Critical math and science educators have argued for pedagogies that focus on equity, social justice, and the identities of learners. To inform debates about the purposes and values of math and science pedagogy, we need to better understand how different kinds of curriculum and instruction are taken up by learners over time. This study examines the ways one Latinx immigrant learner, Calvin (a pseudonym), constructed the values and purposes of his earlier math and science learning experiences, as an adult hoping to pursue a career in science. Narrative analysis is used to explore the ways Calvin made sense of his learning of math and science in high school, in community colleges, and on his own. Drawing on the construct of appropriation, we examine the conceptual tools Calvin took up from different math and science pedagogies (reform, critical, and traditional) in narrating his desire to explore and understand scientific phenomena. Narrative frames position Calvin with greater or lesser agency as he navigates different learning environments, imagines possible futures, and constructs the purposes of science and mathematics. The narratives of Calvin’s learning illustrate the conceptual tools he appropriates from reform and social justice pedagogies: real-to-my-life mathematics, learning as connecting and imagining, harder-but-easier math for a purpose, and the ways reading and writing the world can be applied to imagining planets and the universe. The analysis suggests the usefulness of restorying as a way to explore how our pedagogies interact with learners’ subjectivities, desires, values, and purposes for learning.

摘要

批判性的数学和科学教育者一直在主张针对公平，社会公正和学习者身份的教学法。为了使有关数学和科学教学法的目的和价值的辩论更有意义，我们需要更好地了解学习者随着时间的流逝如何采用不同种类的课程和教学。这项研究探讨了一名拉丁裔移民学习者加尔文（化名）如何建立他早期的数学和科学学习经验的价值观和目的，作为一个成年人，他们希望从事科学职业。叙事分析用于探讨加尔文在高中，社区大学和他自己身上对数学和科学学习的理解方式。利用拨款的结构，我们研究了加尔文从不同的数学和科学教学法（改革，批判，和传统）来描述他探索和理解科学现象的愿望。叙事框架使加尔文在不同的学习环境中进行导航，想象可能的未来以及构建科学和数学的目的时，其处境或多或少具有一定的作用。卡尔文学习的叙述说明了他从改革和社会正义教育学中使用的概念工具：真实生活中的数学，作为连接和想象的学习，为目的而更难但更轻松的数学以及可以将世界的读写方式应用于想象行星和宇宙的方法。分析表明，恢复性学习是探索我们的教学法如何与学习者的主观性，欲望，价值观和学习目的相互作用的一种有用方法。