Jesús and María in the jungle: an essay on possibility and constraint in the third-shift third space

Abstract

One hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair, in The Jungle, exposed the deplorable working conditions of eastern European immigrants in the meatpacking houses of Chicago. The backdrop of this article is the new Jungle of the 21st century-the hog plants of the rural Midwest. Here I speak to the lives of the Mexican workers they employ, and, more specifically, the science-learning experiences and aspirations of third-shifters, Jesús and María. I use these students' stories as an opportunity to examine the take-up, in education, of the concept of hybridity, and, more particularly, to interrogate what I have come to regard as the ''third space fetish.'' My principle argument is that Bhabha's understanding of liberatory Third Space has been distorted, in education, through teacher-centered and power-neutral multicultural discourse. I call for a more robust approach to hybridity in science education research, guided by the lessons of possibility and constraint contained in Jesús' and María's third-shift third space lives. Executive summaryHace cien años, Upton Sinclair, en su libro The Jungle (La Selva), expuso las condiciones deplorables de los trabajadores inmigrantes de Europa oriental en las empacadoras de carne de Chicago. Este artículo trata de la nueva Selva en el siglo veintiuno-las matanzas de puercos en el medioeste rural de los Estados Unidos. Aquí hablo de las vidas de los trabajadores mexicanos que son empleados por estas plantas y, más específicamente, sobre las experiencias y aspiraciones en el aprendizaje de ciencia que tienen dos estudiantes, Jesús y María los cuales trabajan en el tercer turno en la limpieza de la planta. Jesús trabajaba en el tercer turno mientras estudiaba la preparatoria, y se graduó con sueños de

Teaching science from cultural points of intersection

“…In a later study, Seiler (2011) focused on the hybridization of teachers' identity and science teaching as a vehicle for students' identification with school science. In both examples hybridity results from the synergy of students and teachers, differing from the notion of a determined socio‐cultural space achieved through teacher‐controlled instruction (Richardson Bruna, 2009). Instead, hybridity depicts students and teachers co‐constructing the school science culture.…”

Hidden wor(l)ds in science class: conscientization and politicization in science education research and practice

“…Goldberg and Welsh's paper contrasts with the work of Katherine Richardson Bruna (2007Bruna ( , 2009, which is also situated in a classroom that serves students who are recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America. By studying the multiple lived experiences of Latina/o immigrant students through a class-cognizant analysis, Bruna (2007) illustrates ways that science teaching can be insurgent, that is, it can disrupt the discourses of marginalization that cross into schools from meso and macro social and economic discourses.…”

“…Bruna (2009) uses hybridity as a conceptual lens not only to shed light on how immigrant students negotiate between their home, workplace and school science cultures, but also to consider how hybridity evolves through student-teacher interactions. Living in multiple cultural contexts entails learning and negotiating multiple discursive practices.…”

“…What is significant about Bruna's (2009) contribution is the elaboration of ''theatres of insurgent activity.'' In seven theatres, she describes the facilitation of processes of individual conscientization and collective action that might lead to educational and social change.…”

“…This can be part of a vision of transformative science; but alone, it is not enough. We also need to take an ecosocial approach (Lemke 1997) and look, as Bruna (2007Bruna ( , 2009 begins to do, to learn how social reproduction is operationalized through science. This is where context becomes important-in the sense of place, position, and time.…”