ABSTRACT
The culture of a science classroom favors a particular speech community. Thus membership requires students to become bilingual and bicultural at the same time. The complexity of learning science rests in that it not only possesses a unique lexicon and discourse, but it ultimately entails a particular way of knowing. This study examines the academic engagement and perceptions of a group of high school students (N = 30) regarding their science-literate practices. These students were participating in an Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) program whose purpose is to increase Latino high school graduation rates and assist them with college entrance requirements. At the time of the study, 19 students were enrolled in different science classes to fulfill the science requirements for graduation. The primary research question: What kind of science classroom learning environment supports science-literate identities for Latino/a students? was addressed through a convergent parallel mixed research design.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The names of all research participants and locations are pseudonyms.
2 Full reference not given for anonymity.
3 ACCESS for ELLs is WIDA’s suite of summative English language proficiency assessments. ACCESS is taken annually by ELLs in kindergarten through grade 12. World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), is a consortium of 40 states dedicated to the design and implementation of high standards and equitable educational opportunities for English learners.
4 This assessment is only an estimation based on students’ responses to the reading interview inventory. A reading miscue inventory was not administered to any student.