ERIC Number: EJ1412440
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8326
EISSN: EISSN-1098-237X
Praxis Crisis and the Trouble with Science Teacher Education for Emergent Bilingual Learners
Sara Tolbert; Caroline T. Spurgin; Doris B. Ash
Science Education, v108 n2 p412-442 2024
In this study, we explore how preservice secondary science teachers articulated their agency and structural awareness within racist-nativist policy and schooling environments that limit emergent bilingual students' opportunities to learn science. Our praxis-oriented analysis led us to characterize novice teacher participants' discursive positionings within this structure-agency dialectic--that is, what it means to teach science well with emergent bilingual learners in the context of structural exclusions--as deficit, distancing, or discerning. We then discuss how these preservice teacher positionings were a function of tension management for working within the structure-agency dialectic. In our discussion, we refer to this phenomenon as praxis crisis, that is, the disjuncture between theory and practice that occurs as teachers negotiate the real and perceived constraints of their work. We consider how the concept of praxis crisis that emerged from our work can be a critical dialogic tool for transformative learning in science teacher education research and practice, and how a praxis-oriented methodological approach can support more expansive and nuanced understandings of teacher learning.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Secondary School Teachers, Science Teachers, Student Attitudes, Racism, Educational Policy, Bilingual Students, Equal Education, Praxis, Science Education, Theory Practice Relationship, Barriers
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A