Maria S. Rivera Maulucci

Intersections between immigration, language, identity, and emotions: a science teacher candidate’s journey

This study reports a subset of findings from a larger, ongoing study aimed at exploring interactions between teacher identity, learning, and classroom practices in a social justice teacher education program at a selective liberal arts college in New York. This case-study explores the journey of Elena, as an immigrant, a student, and a pre-service teacher candidate towards becoming a social justice educator. Elena reflects upon her school language experiences as an immigrant youth, her learning in a social justice teacher education program, and her field experiences in an international high school. The analysis spans macro-, meso-, and microlevels to explore the ways globalization, particularly immigration, as well as schooling policies for English language learners interact with aspects of Elena’s core identity, particularly in school settings. The findings show some of the ways language and literacy verified and/or denied aspects of Elena’s core identity; specific instances where second language proficiency was cast as power and privilege versus disadvantage according to ethnic, language, and class categorizations; and the struggles Elena, and other immigrant youth may face given the focus on English language acquisition and high stakes accountability in schools, at the expense of students’ primary language proficiency and affirmation of core identity markers.

Navigating role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic: a novice urban science teacher’s developmental trajectory

Examining role forces and resources available to new teachers is crucial to understanding how teachers use and expand cultural, social, and symbolic resources and how they engage teaching for social justice and caring in urban science education. This critical narrative inquiry explores three levels of story. First, the narratives explore my role as a district science staff developer and my efforts to leverage district resources to improve students’ opportunities to learn science. Second, the narratives explore the ways in which a novice science teacher, Tina, navigated role forces and the aesthetic|authentic caring dialectic in a high poverty, urban school. A third level of narrative draws on sociological theories of human interaction to explore role forces and how they shaped Tina’s developmental trajectory. I describe how Tina expanded cultural, social, and symbolic resources to enact her teaching role.

Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena’s developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher. Elena reflects upon her early language experiences and her more recent experiences as a preservice science teacher in elementary dual language classrooms. The findings from Elena’s early schooling experiences provide an analysis of the linkages between Elena’s developing English proficiency, her Spanish proficiency, and her autobiographical reasoning. Elena’s experiences as a preservice teacher in two elementary dual language classrooms indicates ways in which those experiences helped to reframe her views about the intersections between language learning and science learning. I propose the language experience narrative, as a subset of the life story, as a way to understand how preservice teachers reconstruct past language experiences, connect to the present, and anticipate future language practices.

Social Justice Research in Science Education: Methodologies, Positioning, and Implications for Future Research

This chapter reviews social justice research in science education, focusing on the developmental trajectory and theories of method that drive the research. I address the following questions in this review: What are some of the trends in social justice citations? What methodologies are employed in social justice research in science education? What are the epistemological, ontological, catalytic, and tactical assumptions embedded in the research methodologies? What are the implications for future research in social justice in science education? After an analysis of trends, I discuss early framing of social justice in science education research. Then, I review five studies, focusing on the authors’ social and theoretical positioning and on ways in which critical methodologies blend scholarship and activism. I conclude with several implications for future social justice research in science education.

Excavating silences and tensions of agency|passivity in science education reform

I reflect on studies by Rodriguez and Carlone, Haun-Frank, and Kimmel to emphasize the ways in which they excavate silences in the science education literature related to linguistic and cultural diversity and situating the problem of reform in teachers rather than contextual factors, such as traditional schooling discourses and forces that serve to marginalize science. I propose that the current push for top-down reform and accountability diminishes opportunities for receptivity, learning with and from students in order to transform teachers’ practices and promote equity in science education. I discuss tensions of agency and passivity in science education reform and argue that attention to authentic caring constitutes another silence in the science education literature. I conclude that the current policy context positions teachers and science education researchers as tempered radicals struggling against opp(reg)ressive reforms and that there is a need for more studies to excavate these and other silences.

Where’s the joy? justice and caring in science education

Examines just how the important goals of educating for democracy can be achieved from the perspective of those working in teacher education and in P-12 schools.

NARST Equity and Ethics Committee: Mentoring Scholars of Color in the Organization and in the Academy

In this chapter, we consider the particular needs of scholars of color in the academy from a variety of standpoints. Recognizing that labels such as marginalized, underrepresented, minority, diverse, and scholars of color can be problematic, we hope to push on the ways the “problem” of underrepresentation gets framed, the challenges and possibilities scholars of color navigate, and how organizations like NARST can work to support the career trajectories of scholars of color in the academy. We describe our work as members of the NARST Equity and Ethics Committee to develop the preconference workshop. We discuss what we have tried, what some of the challenges have been, how the work contributes to building a community of scholars, and implications for future work.

Becoming an Urban Science Teacher: Teacher Learning as the Collective Performance of Conceptions

This case study explores a teacher’s learning within the contexts of her science methods course and field placement in two elementary dual language classrooms. Elena was a neuroscience major in her second semester of a pre-service teacher education program that also includes a science methods seminar attended by in-service and pre-service teachers. In the seminar, Elena partnered with two dual language teachers from a local, public, elementary school, Ms. Aron, a second-grade teacher, and Mrs. Hernandez, a fifth-grade teacher. She spent one period a week over 10 weeks observing and teaching in each classroom, and one period a week planning with her partner teachers, for a total of 30 h of fieldwork. The dual language model called for all science instruction to be conducted in Spanish. The analysis focuses on two pedagogical interventions employed in the seminar and explores linkages to Elena’s classroom practices. Three questions frame this study: (a) In what way do changes in Elena’s practices expand her schema regarding children’s ideas about science? (b) What ideas do children bring about a unit topic and how does Elena use those ideas to shape instructional goals? (c) What are some of the linkages between Elena’s developing schema and practices, her identity, and her enactment of a science lesson? In exploring these questions, I show the ways Elena’s conceptions result from individual | collective activity, and thus draw on psychological and sociological frames to describe Elena’s journey of becoming an urban science teacher.

You Can Give a Bee Some Water, But You Can’t Make Her Drink: A Socioscientific Approach to Honey Bees in Science Education

Human fascination with the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), likely since before we evolved from hominid relatives, has become even more important as honey bees increasingly perform pollination services for modern industrial agricultural systems. In this chapter, we advance a socioscientific issues approach for studying honey bees that engages students in arguing from evidence and exploring the ethical dimensions of science in society in ways that may inspire further student involvement in science. We provide some intriguing details about honey bees, including their history, their role in industrial agriculture, and the ways in which current honey bee management may pose risks to our food security. We also explore some of the debates scientists are having regarding honey bees, such as whether or not they are truly domesticated and their status as a non-native or invasive species in some parts of the world. Finally, we describe ways to involve bees in the classroom, ranging from the exploration of excellent texts to actual cultivation of honey bees.

Teaching for Social Justice in Science Education

Karen is a White, Female, Physics major, and a product of excellent public schools. In her schooling autobiography, she writes about the opportunities she had to learn science and to excel in schools that served culturally diverse, but affluent students and, at the time, 95% of the students in her elementary, middle, and high schools achieved proficiency on the state English Language Arts and Mathematics exams. Karen enjoyed supportive teachers in school and numerous community-based activities, including Girl Scouts, soccer, swimming, dance, horseback riding, musical theatre, and diving after school.