We propose a process of contextualization based on seven empirically derived contextualization principles, aiming to provide opportunities for Indigenous Mexican adolescents to learn science in a way that supports them in fulfilling their right to an education aligned with their own culture and values. The contextualization principles we…

This article reports the results of an ethnographic research about the multimodal science discourse in a sixth-grade sheltered classroom involving English Language Learners (ELLs) only. Drawing from the perspective of multimodality, this study examines how science learning is constructed in science lectures through multiple semiotic resources,…

While environmental argumentation has recently received much attention from science educators, little consideration has been given to how personal identities and social relationships can either support or constrain student argumentation. This study attends to this issue by examining environmental argumentation as a sociocultural activity (how…

Laughter is a fundamental human phenomenon. Yet there is little educational research on the potential functions of laughter on the enacted (lived) curriculum. In this study, we identify the functions of laughter in a beginning science teacher's classroom throughout her first year of teaching. Our study shows that laughter is more than a gratuitous…

This ethnographic study explored aspects of how the natural sciences were represented in a Reggio Emilia-inspired laboratory preschool. The natural sciences as a discipline--a latecomer to preschool curricula--and the internationally known approach, Reggio Emilia, interested educators and researchers, but there was little research about science in…

This study further extends a conceptual framework that explores science teaching as a "practice" not reducible to the application of formal knowledge, but as informed by teachers' practical-moral knowledge. A hermeneutic model was developed to examine practical-moral knowledge "indirectly" by investigating teachers'…

When evaluating equity, researchers often look at the "achievement gap." Privileging knowledge and skills as primary outcomes of science education misses other, more subtle, but critical, outcomes indexing inequitable science education. In this comparative ethnography, we examined what it meant to "be scientific" in two fourth-grade classes taught…

Sexual health is a controversial science topic that has received little attention in the field of science education, despite its direct relevance to students' lives and communities. Moreover, research from other fields indicates that a great deal remains to be learned about how to make school learning about sexual health influence the real-life…