Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Coherence, Contradiction And The Development Of School Science Identities, Stacy Olitsky, Linda Loman, Jessica Gardner, Markita Billups

Stacy Olitsky

This ethnographic study took place in a diverse eighth grade science classroom in an urban magnet school where students demonstrate significant variation in classroom achievement and participation. In this paper, we use an activity-theoretical framework to examine classroom events in order to identify and work toward reducing contradictions that can interfere with students developing positive school science identities. We discuss several contradictions for students in this classroom, including the conflicts between social and academic goals and the inconsistencies between science and math classes. We found that in situations where students could build and use social capital through learning science, they …