Science as experience, exploration, and experiments: elementary teachers’ notions of ‘doing science’

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on science teaching suggests that elementary teachers lack relevant prior experiences with science. This study begins to reframe the deficit approach to research in science teaching by privileging the experiences elementary teachers have had with science – both in and out of schools – throughout their lives. Our work uses identity as a lens to examine the complexities of elementary teachers’ narrative accounts of their experiences with science over the course of their lives. Our findings identify components of teachers’ science-related experiences in order to lay the groundwork for making connections between teachers’ personal experiences and professional practice. This work demonstrates that teachers’ storied lives are important for educational researchers and teacher educators, as they reveal elements of teaching knowledge that may be productive and resourceful for refining teachers’ science practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher thinking
• elementary teachers
• science teaching
• life histories
• teacher identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ashley N. Murphy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8014-1481

Melissa J. Luna http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2175-996X

Malayna B. Bernstein http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5106-5654

Notes

1. For more information about the Life Story Interview, see The Foley Center for the Study of Lives website, where the instrument and related information is publically available: http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/foley/instruments/interview/.