Accommodating Indigenous students' cultural resources in science classrooms: an approach to enhance learning agency
Conference Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
This paper reports on a research study conducted with 44 Torres Strait Islander Year 9 students in a wholly Indigenous school in Far North Queensland. Using a socio-cultural lens, the study investigated how students employed their vernacular and formal science language to engage with the concepts of energy and force and documented the cultural resources students drew on to learn and (re)produce knowledge. The large majority of students struggled to understand and represent concepts of force and energy as taught in Standard Australian English (SAE), but when Torres Strait Creole descriptors used for everyday ways of knowing were employed in the classroom, the students were better able to demonstrate their understanding of physical science concepts. Classroom experiences conducted only in SAE do not adequately facilitate all Indigenous students' negotiations from their everyday ways of knowing to demonstrating conceptual understanding of formal curriculum or science concepts. Teaching and learning frameworks that accommodate the multiple language and cultural dimensions of older and emerging Indigenous cultures was shown to enhance conceptual learning. However, the practice of standardised assessment conducted wholly in SAE remains a significant obstacle to measuring student achievement levels in science.
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STEM Science, Technology & Mathematics Education Conference
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10
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Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Queensland University of Technology
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Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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