Enacting Informal Science Learning: Exploring the Battle for Informal Learning

ABSTRACT

Informal Science Learning (ISL) is a policy narrative of interest in the United Kingdom and abroad. This paper explores how a group of English secondary school science teachers, enacted ISL science clubs through employing the Periodic Table of Videos. It examines how these teachers ‘battled’ to enact ISL policy in performative conditions at the micro-scale, and how this battle reflected macro-scale epistemological and political considerations. Data from the study suggests that for some, ISL was low stakes as it was seen to have negligible impact upon performance data. As a result, there was some resistance towards enacting ISL and conflict between the formal and informal curriculum processes. Nonetheless, analysis indicates that the informants highly valued ISL despite the requirement for them to justify it over more formal and ‘effective’ approaches to learning science.

Keywords:

• performativity
• informal science learning
• policy
• enactment
• conflict

14. Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Policy is not implemented but enacted – that is, teachers read policy in relation to their own context and enact it with consideration of this context (see Ball et al., 2012).

² Molmod kits are used to build three-dimensional models for organic, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry and general science applications.