“Estoy Explorando Science”: Emergent bilingual students problematizing electrical phenomena through translanguaging

Abstract

As science education continues to embrace science‐as‐practice, equitable science learning environments must value and leverage emergent bilingual students' ways of communicating. This study investigates the translanguaging practices of a group of elementary‐aged emergent bilingual students while they problematized electrical phenomena. Building on asset‐oriented theories for supporting student learning, I utilize translanguaging as a theoretical and pedagogical lens for understanding how emergent bilingual students leverage their full semiotic repertoires for productive disciplinary engagement. The study took place in an out‐of‐school program focused on creating opportunities for students to problematize electrical phenomena, specifically electrical resistance. I present a close analysis of students constructing models of electric flow through a circuit and how electrical resistance regulates that flow. The findings also include evidence that students engaged in different kinds of translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical phenomena and co‐constructing knowledge with each other and the instructor. Specifically, students drew from and used multiple linguistic and nonlinguistic semiotic resources for communicating their models. Finally, the findings suggest that the instructor's pedagogical moves and own translanguaging practices implicitly signaled to students when and how to participate in translanguaging practices themselves. The findings emphasize the importance of desettling what counts as productive forms of communication in science for elementary‐aged emergent bilingual students by eschewing pedagogical models that police discursive boundaries. Therefore, equitable science learning environments must create opportunities for emergent bilingual students to leverage their full semiotic repertoires for meaning‐making, by inviting and valuing multiple languages and gestures.

Developing deep learning in science classrooms: Tactics to manage epistemic uncertainty during whole‐class discussion

“…The problematized phenomenon creates an argumentation space for students to discuss, express, and reexamine their common‐sense understanding related to the problematized phenomenon (Wickman & Östman, 2002). As Suárez (2020) stated: “problematizing is more concerned with the complex questions and wonderments that arise when students choose to engage with disciplinary content and make progress towards figuring out what is going on” (p. 795). We consider that authenticity and meaningfulness should be emphasized when problematizing a phenomenon.…”

“…The teacher can ask why this happens. Such a problematized phenomenon activates students' existing knowledge related to the concept, as well as identifies the gap between what students know and do not know (Suárez, 2020). Loibl and Rummel (2014) suggested this leads to deep learning in the science classroom.…”

Retiring the term English language learners: Moving toward linguistic justice through asset‐oriented framing

“…Borrowing from decades of work in the field of bilingual and multilingual education, we encourage science educational researchers to use more asset‐oriented terms, like emergent (or emerging) bilingual or multilingual students. Recently, scholars in science education have begun using such terminology (e.g., Poza, 2018; Suárez, 2020; Ünsal et al, 2018; Wilmes & Siry, 2020). For us, the terms we suggest represent a broader commitment to equity and justice that is rooted in seeing, valuing, and building on whom these youth are and the resources they bring to the learning environment, and eschewing deficit‐oriented framings.…”

Can AI be racist? Color‐evasiveness in the application of machine learning to science assessments

“…In the equivalent English response, the machine interprets the text and assigns the answer a higher proficiency score even though both scientific meanings are equivalent. This privileging of English academic language significantly limits how learners from a broad swath of racially and linguistically marginalized backgrounds are recognized as using their linguistic resources to show what they know and can do in science (Brown, 2006;Bunch & Martin, 2020;Suárez, 2020).…”