Scientific discourse in the academy: A case study of an American Indian undergraduate

Abstract

This case study explores how an American Indian woman experienced scientific discourse and the issues of language, power, and authority that occurred while she was an undergraduate student at a university in the southwestern United States. This ethnographic research, using a phenomenological perspective, describes her experiences as she searched for the discursive resources she required to cross-cultural borders between her traditional worldview and Eurocentric science. Data from interviews, participant observation, and artifacts offer a narrative of how she became aware of the "game rules" of scientific discourse. The findings are expressed in terms of a cartographic metaphor where the student's world became less of a list of categories and more of a map outlining where she ventured and the ways in which she oriented herself to scientific language. To facilitate the border crossing and reduce the obstacles that some students experience in crossing between worldviews, educators can look at cross-cultural perspectives and explore with students how language fosters or hinders their progress. This research suggests that we allow room in our pedagogy for students to learn the rules of using scientific language, make explicit the cultural norms associated with this practice, thereby promoting a "metaknowledge" of how scientific discourse functions in the academy.

A Cultural Perspective of Conceptual Change: Re-examining the Goal of Science Education

“…(p. 125) The metaphor of border crossing implies a static dichotomy between the non-school culture and school culture. It has been found to be inadequate in explaining American Indigenous women's experience in making sense of Eurocentric science in the context of indigenous knowledge (Brandt, 2007(Brandt, , 2008a(Brandt, , 2008b. A different theoretical framework is necessary for an explanation.…”

Cultural Strengths to Persevere: Native American Women in Higher Education

“…Although no articles about tribal colleges focused solely on women students, Ambler (1992) wrote about the prevalence of Native women in top leadership positions at tribal colleges. Outside the eld of education, Brandt (2008) conducted a qualitative study with four Navajo women in science, nding the centrality of culture and family for her participants.…”

Studying Science

“…However, several research studies have explored issues that can be viewed as barriers to and opportunities for students in their pursuit of science. Research studies by Brandt (2008), Demaree andLi (2009), Hunter, Laursen, andSeymour (2006), and…”

“…These studies advanced the idea that learning in the context of performing authentic science, the type of learning that happens in a research lab, results in more positive outcomes for students studying the sciences than lecture-based instruction, and highlight the effects of small-group activities in fostering learning among all students, especially minority students, in science courses in college. Brandt (2008) conducted a case study involving the senior-year experience of a female Navajo science major at the University of New Mexico, where in 2000 Native…”

“…A fourth set of findings concerned interpersonal relationships that participants described that facilitated their recruitment into the environmental sciences (Brandt, 2008;Demaree & Li, 2009;Hunter, Laursen, & Seymour, 2006;McGinn & Roth, 1999). Noteworthy were comments about the positive influence of having a professor who expressed belief in the participants' ability to do well in the environmental sciences, even though the participant may have been inexperienced in the field.…”