“Science theatre makes you good at science”: Affordances of embodied performances in urban elementary science classrooms

Abstract

School science continues to alienate students identifying with nondominant, non‐western cultures, and learners of color, and considers science as an enterprise where success necessitates divorcing the self and corporeal body from ideas and the mind. Resisting the colonizing pedagogy of the mind–body divide, we aimed at creating pedagogical spaces and places in science classes that sustain equitable opportunities for engagement and meaning making where body and mind are enmeshed. In the context of a partnership between school‐ and university‐based educators and researchers, we explored how multimodal literacies cultivated through the performing arts, provide students from minoritized communities opportunities to both create knowledge and to position themselves as science experts and brilliant and creative meaning makers. Four theoretical perspectives (social semiotics and multimodality; dramatizing and the embodied mind; dismantling master narratives for minoritized peoples; and the relationship of knowledge production and identity construction) framed this multiple case study of classes of elementary and middle school students who made sense of and communicated science concepts and practices through embodied performances. The study provided evidence that embodied science representations afford students abundant opportunities to construct science knowledge and positionings that support engagement with science, whether performed on a small scale in classrooms, or for the whole school through a large‐scale science play. Embodied dramatizing led to opportunities for collective meaning making as student‐performers coordinated across various movements and modes in order to represent ideas. Multiple enactments of the same concept nurtured the development of multi‐dimensional scientific, sociocultural, and sociopolitical meanings. During embodiments, students positioned themselves and others in ways that allowed expanded science identities to become possible, intertwined with other salient identities. By treating children's bodies as sites of knowledge, imagination, and expertise, integrating performing arts and science has the potential to facilitate the development of connections among ideas and between self and ideas.

Beyond assessing knowledge about models and modeling: Moving toward expansive, meaningful, and equitable modeling practice

“…With some exceptions (see Grapin et al, 2021; Pierson et al, 2021; Salgado, 2021; Suárez, 2020), few studies of scientific modeling focus on equity impacts on children and youth. Alternatively, work on representational practice that could point to more equitable or culturally sustaining practice may not be seen as part of the modeling practice research endeavor (e.g., Scherr et al, 2013; Solomon et al, 2022; Varelas et al, 2022; Washinawatok et al, 2017). For example, the role of narrative, stories, and poetry are important in many different cultures including those of Indigenous, Latinx, and African American communities.…”

Study guidance practices in science with Turkish speaking recently arrived pupils : A study focusing on scaffolding and meaning making

“…I will begin by presenting an overview of the previous research within the science education research field in general. I review the research that specifically investigates elementary school (3 rd -9 th grade) pupils' interaction with their teachers with regard to the meaning making of science content (Chen, 2020;Fang, 2006;Jung, 2019;Lemke, 1982;Lundin & Jakobson, 2014;Orlander, 2014;Scott et al, 2006 6 ;Varelas, 2021). According to the literature on science education, one possible way for teachers to offer rich interactions for pupils is by inviting them to actively participate in talking science (e.g., Lemke, 1982;Scott et al, 2006).…”

Food for thought: Immersive storyworlds as a way into scientific meaning‐making

“…The Guerilla Science storyworld, which did not follow a script but instead consisted of a number of routines, providing for flexibility of inputs and responses, appeared particularly suited for supporting this form of belonging in science discourse spaces. The joint production of the storyworld, created by individual improvisations and group solidarity, may be a powerful tool for creating opportunities in which participants feel solidarity and belonging in the context of science (see Varelas et al, 2021, e.g., in a school context).…”

“…There has also been important work on designing social settings to support a sense of belonging (Calabrese Barton et al, 2021; Ong et al, 2018; Varelas et al, 2021). Walton and Brady (2017) describe how small social cues can shape initial reactions to whether a person feels that they belong or not.…”

“…Many science education scholars suggest that fostering a sense of belonging may be especially important for students from communities who are under‐represented in a setting or a disciplinary field such as science (Ong et al, 2018; Trujillo & Tanner, 2014). Further, some scholars have focused on the design of settings that can promote a sense of belonging, or rightful presence (e.g., Calabrese Barton et al, 2021; Varelas et al, 2021; Walton & Brady, 2017). But few studies, likely for both conceptual and methodological reasons, have explored what belonging may mean in a short‐term, everyday experience, despite the fact that leading scholars of belonging have noted the importance of everyday opportunities for developing a sense of belonging, including in the context of being a stranger in a social setting (Baumeister quoted in Allen et al, 2021, n.p).…”