Abstract

We investigate fifth-grade students’ identity work and science learning at the margins of a science classroom. By “margins” we refer to activities unrelated to formal classroom instructional content and practices, and which unfold across many settings and contexts, including the classroom itself, but also multi-party, social group gatherings during recess, field trips, and the home. Data were collected in ethnographic fashion, in both field notes and video records, and data analysis focused on the interactional details in which students’ multiple identities were actively negotiated. Our descriptive analysis reveals some novel types of identities (e.g. collective and “occupational”) that students enacted in daily social situations, which suggests that students’ identity repertoire is more extensive and diverse than usually accounted for. In addition, students’ identity work at the margins was most frequently tied to the dynamics and structure of the locally established, small-sized social groups in which students routinely clustered and thus reflected locally grounded identities (rather than normative categories of gender, race, and class identities). Finally, because students’ activities shared continuities with biology content and practices, knowing and learning of biology were implicated in their identity work. We close by drawing implications of these findings for contemporary pedagogical approaches and teachers’ instructional practices.

摘要

我们在科学教室的边缘调查五年级学生的身份工作和科学学习。“边际”是指与正式课堂教学内容和实践无关的活动，这些活动在许多环境和环境中展开，包括课堂本身，也包括课间休息、实地考察和家庭期间的多方社交团体聚会。数据以民族志方式收集，包括现场笔记和视频记录，数据分析侧重于积极协商学生多重身份的互动细节。我们的描述性分析揭示了学生在日常社交场合中表现出的一些新的身份类型（例如集体和“职业”），这表明学生的身份库比通常解释的更广泛和多样化。此外，边缘学生的身份工作最常与当地建立的小型社会群体的动态和结构相关联，学生经常聚集在这些群体中，因此反映了当地的身份认同（而不是性别、种族、和类身份）。最后，由于学生的活动与生物学内容和实践具有连续性，生物学的认识和学习与他们的身份工作有关。最后，我们总结了这些发现对当代教学方法和教师教学实践的影响。学生经常聚集在其中的小型社会群体，因此反映了当地的身份认同（而不是性别、种族和阶级身份的规范类别）。最后，由于学生的活动与生物学内容和实践具有连续性，生物学的认识和学习与他们的身份工作有关。最后，我们总结了这些发现对当代教学方法和教师教学实践的影响。学生经常聚集在其中的小型社会群体，因此反映了当地的身份认同（而不是性别、种族和阶级身份的规范类别）。最后，由于学生的活动与生物学内容和实践具有连续性，生物学的认识和学习与他们的身份工作有关。最后，我们总结了这些发现对当代教学方法和教师教学实践的影响。