Science education with multilingual learners: Equity as access and equity as transformation

Abstract

Research in science education with multilingual learners (MLs) has expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion can be situated within a larger dialogue about what it means to provide minoritized students with an equitable education. Whereas some conceptions of equity focus on ensuring all students have access to the knowledge, practices, and language normatively valued in K‐12 schools (equity as access), increasingly prominent conceptions focus on transforming those knowledge, practices, and language in ways that center minoritized students and their communities (equity as transformation). In this article, we argue that conceptions of equity provide a useful lens for understanding emerging research in science education with MLs and for charting a research agenda. We begin by tracing how conceptions of equity have evolved in parallel across STEM and multilingual education. Then, we provide an overview of recent developments from demographic, theoretical, and policy perspectives. In the context of these developments, we provide a conceptual synthesis of emerging research by our team of early‐career scholars in three areas: (a) learning, (b) assessment, and (c) teacher education. Within each area, we unpack the research efforts in terms of how they attend to equity as access while pushing toward equity as transformation. Finally, we propose a research agenda for science education with MLs that builds on and extends these efforts. We close by offering recommendations for making this research agenda coherent and impactful: (a) being explicit about our conceptions of equity, (b) paying attention to the interplay of structure and agency, and (c) promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

Language Views for Scientific Sensemaking Matter: A Synthesis of Research on Multilingual Students’ Experiences with Science Practices Through a Translanguaging Lens

“…Engaging in science practices requires students to mobilize language resources in specialized ways (Grapin et al, 2023; Pierson & Grapin, 2021). For instance, some researchers argue that how students use named language(s) to partake in science practices becomes more complex across grades, particularly regarding use of science terminology and more disciplinary use of syntax and grammatical features across talk and writing (Lee, 2018; Lee et al, 2013).…”

“…Such research could help change the narrative of what multilingual students are capable of while also disrupting notions of how students should engage in disciplinary practices and which language resources they should draw upon to do so (Warren et al, 2020). Working toward transformative, equity-oriented science education research (Grapin et al, 2023) that elevates myriad ways that disciplinary practices could be enacted (Warren et al, 2020), we next describe the theoretical lens that guided our analysis of current research on multilingual students’ experiences with language-rich science practices.…”

“…Current science standards (i.e., the Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS] Lead States, 2013) emphasize language-rich disciplinary practices as central to how students engage in sensemaking to construct knowledge (Lee & Stephens, 2020; Grapin et al, 2022b), an emphasis that has continued an upward trend of research focused on multilingual students’ learning via science practices. This research trend has the potential to help transform science classrooms into more equitable environments if researchers elevate the brilliant ways multilingual students use wide-ranging language resources to grapple with, make sense of, and communicate understandings about natural phenomena (Bang et al, 2017; Grapin et al, 2023; Rosebery et al, 2010; Warren et al, 2020).…”

Developing instructional materials for English learners in the content areas: An illustration of traditional and contemporary materials in science education

“…We recognize that these unit‐level descriptions do not make visible many of the lesson‐level strategies embedded within each unit that support ELs in the content areas (e.g., sentence frames, graphic organizers). However, while we acknowledge the importance of such strategies and have discussed them elsewhere on the pages of this journal (Grapin et al, 2021), the unit level has received relatively less attention than the lesson level in materials development for ELs in the content areas (Grapin, 2021). This lack of attention is problematic, since decisions made at the unit level provide the crucial foundation for lesson‐level strategies to be effective.…”

“…Rather than being a hook or application, the phenomenon and driving question are sustained coherently throughout the unit, with each finding leading to the next question to investigate (e.g., the smell from the landfill bottles prompts students to investigate the nature of smell). This sustained focus on a phenomenon enables ELs to build their science understanding more comprehensively over time along with the language to communicate that understanding more precisely (e.g., ELs learn the specialized vocabulary term particles to name “those tiny things too small to see” that emerged as important for explaining the phenomenon; Grapin, 2021).…”