Transforming Science Learning Framework: Translating an Equity Commitment into Action through Co-Design

ABSTRACT

In this study, we present a conceptual tool for guiding teachers’ principled pedagogical actions toward equitable instruction, referred to as the Transforming Science Learning (TSL) framework. The TSL framework was developed to address the challenges of enacting an ideological commitment in local contexts–promoting equity and justice through culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in K-12 science classrooms. TSL consists of five design principles that articulate the goals (the ‘why” of practice), instead of prescribing pedagogical activities (the “what” of practice). The five principles are: a) make it matter, b) support sense-making, c) attend to race, language, and identities, d) build a welcoming community, and e) disrupt power hierarchies. We use a co-designed high school physics unit enacted by one teacher, Ms. Davis (pseudonym), as an illustrative case to contextualize our overall data analysis in three physics classrooms. We examine what teachers did, guided by each design principle, including when they planned lessons, interacted with students during instruction, and assessed student learning. We discuss the affordances of a well-designed conceptual tool in addressing the problem of enactment by productively mediating co-design toward transformative and consequential learning.

KEYWORDS:

• co-design
• design principles
• equity
• research-practice partnership
• problem of enactment
• secondary sciences

Acknowledgments

The authors are deeply thankful to three physics teachers, in particular Ms. Davis (pseudonym), who showed what is possible through this collaboration. The authors also thank to the UCI research team as well as the district leadership for their support. Lastly, we are thankful to the editors and reviewers for their thoughtful comments and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Research on Learning (DRL) under Grant # 1846227.