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Research in science education with multilingual learners (MLs) has expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion can be situated within a larger dialogue about what it means to provide minoritized students with an equitable education. Whereas some conceptions of equity focus on ensuring all students have access to the knowledge, practices, and language normatively valued in K‐12 schools (equity as access), increasingly prominent conceptions focus on transforming those knowledge, practices, and language in ways that center minoritized students and their communities (equity as transformation). In this article, we argue that conceptions of equity provide a useful lens for understanding emerging research in science education with MLs and for charting a research agenda. We begin by tracing how conceptions of equity have evolved in parallel across STEM and multilingual education. Then, we provide an overview of recent developments from demographic, theoretical, and policy perspectives. In the context of these developments, we provide a conceptual synthesis of emerging research by our team of early‐career scholars in three areas: (a) learning, (b) assessment, and (c) teacher education. Within each area, we unpack the research efforts in terms of how they attend to equity as access while pushing toward equity as transformation. Finally, we propose a research agenda for science education with MLs that builds on and extends these efforts. We close by offering recommendations for making this research agenda coherent and impactful: (a) being explicit about our conceptions of equity, (b) paying attention to the interplay of structure and agency, and (c) promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.
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Equity Everywhere: Reflections from a culturally responsive and equitable evaluation of an equity-centered capacity- and field-building model
- Award ID(s):
- 2005829
- PAR ID:
- 10561208
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Evaluation Association
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Despite increasing awareness about the role of classroom assessments in perpetuating educational inequities, the research community continues to struggle with how to support teachers to design and use classroom assessments for achieving equity. In response to recent calls to better connect learning theory to the design of classroom assessments, we explore the links among contemporary learning theories, classroom assessments, equity, and teachers’ professional learning. Building a conceptual argument that we should shift our attention from assessment tasks to a classroom activity system to better support minoritized students’ learning via classroom assessment, we examine how teachers participate in assessment codesign activities in two research-practice partnerships (RPPs), and then identify emerging tensions in relation to promoting equity. Each RPP drew upon contemporary learning theories—sociocognitive and sociocultural learning theories, respectively—to create a coherent system of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The examples show that the tensions emerging from each project are at least partially related to the learning theory that led the researchers to set up professional learning settings in a particular way. Our findings suggest that managing these tensions is an inherent part of the work as researchers seek to support equitable student learning. We discuss specific implications for the assessment community.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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