Interaction rituals, emotions, and early childhood science: digital microscopes and collective joy in a multilingual classroom

Abstract

In her original article, “Identity, Agency and the Internal Conversations of Science and Math Teachers Implementing instructional reforms in High-Need Urban Schools”, Stacy Olitsky (2021) takes us on an exploration of the identity development and agencies exerted by two teachers working to implement science instructional reforms in high-need urban schools. Olitsky (2021) utilizes Interaction Ritual Theory as a lens to examine a seldom viewed and even intimate aspect of teacher’s worlds, namely teachers’ self-talk. In this forum article I embrace the invitation extended by Olitsky, through an exploration of the interaction rituals that took place among students and a teacher working with digital microscopes in an early childhood classroom. I draw upon the theoretical lens of communitas to illuminate the power of collective joy that formed. Specifically, I will share two vignettes from a multilingual early childhood classroom to illustrate how teacher-guided and student-guided spaces afforded interactions that lead to the development of collective joy. I show how collective work with the microscopes allowed for joy and surprise to occur within a classroom of plurilingual students who are participating in their first schooled experiences of science. I conclude with a discussion of the power of student-driven instructional spaces as places for students working to learn science, and the language of instruction, to collectively experience joy as they explore.

Ações De Extensão Em Microscopia

“…Esses rituais de interação e colaboração entre os alunos são de extrema importância para o processo de ensino e aprendizagem, principalmente nas aulas de Ciências, pois estimula os alunos a aprimorarem as habilidades cognitivas, na mesma medida em que vivenciam experiências positivas (WILMES, 2021).…”

Exploring young children's science identity authoring in a STEAM-enriched community-based programme. Roots: Ik ben Science!

“…They are both smiling. This act is aligned with and Wilmes (2021) on emotional entrainment. Red makes eye contact with Jane, which might be her first sustained eye contact with Jane (offprint 3).…”