Session Information
27 SES 04, Embodiement, Power Relations and Feedbacks in Teaching and Learning Subjects
Paper Session
Contribution
Previous research has shown that scientific school knowledge is characterized by strong vertical discourses (Bernstein, 1999); for example, strong grammar structures and the privileging of precise empirical descriptions (Tan & Hong, 2014). According to Tan and Hong (2014), the highly specialized vocabulary and powerful forms of practice in science has made scientific knowledge insulated from other forms of knowledge and everyday knowledge. Teachers from biology, chemistry and physics depend more on empirical justification than theoretical justifications when explaining something in science classrooms. This study attempt to explore how interactional patterns are developed within the practice of teaching physics. A deepened examination of physics classrooms is partly motivated by the subject’s high status in society: physics, as science in general, is portrayed as crucial for society at large. However, it is difficult to attract interest among the youth, especially females (Hazari et.al., 2010). Previous research has illustrated how students describe physics both as a difficult subject, but also a subject that is difficult to identify with (Hazari et.al., 2015). This is mirrored in many structural phenomena in physics education. Traweek (1988) has elaborated on how physicists see themselves as an “elite whose membership is determined solely by scientific merit” (ibid., p.91). This is also true for Swedish context, where this research is carried out; Nyström (2007) interviewed students in Swedish upper secondary school and found that students regarded physics as both high status and very difficult to learn, physics knowledge was not available for everyone. This makes power relations in physics classrooms interesting – what happens in teacher-student interactions that make students believe that a particular kind of innate ability is necessary in order to understand physics?
In this paper we aim to investigate power relations as well as the construction of disciplinary-specific knowledge, using positioning theory (Harré & van Langenhove, 1999). The purpose is to explore how content knowledge and power relations are constituted in teacher-student interactions in forms of storylines (Berge & Danielsson, 2013). In doing so, we aim to create a better understanding of what is made possible and desirable in physics classrooms in terms of the construction of disciplinary-specific knowledge, values, and norms. This paper addresses the following questions:
- What kind of physics related storylines are made relevant in in teacher-student interactions?
- Which kind of physics student is made desirable in those storylines?
Our theoretical starting point is that classroom practices are constituted reciprocally by teacher and students regarding both content and form. Further, power is viewed as something that is not necessarily only repressive but also productive (Foucault & Gordon, 1980). In our analysis of teacher-student interaction we use positioning theory to investigate actions, concepts and principles from a local moral domain (Harré et.al., 2009). Within positioning theory framework social interactions can be understood as having a tri-polar structure of speech-acts, positionings and storylines. A speech-act is an utterance or a gesture. A position/positioning is something said that has a direction and is always twofold; a positioning of someone else also implies a positioning of oneself. Usually position/positioning is the most used constituent in positioning theory, but in this paper we have chosen to foreground storylines. A storyline can be understood as “a set of sequences of actions and positions saturated with cultural meaning” (Søndergaard, 2002, p. 191). Storylines are linked to cultural contexts beyond the actual conversation and unfolds as participants are engaged in positioning themselves and others through speech-acts (Davies & Harré, 1990). By exploring classroom interaction in terms of storylines (and the related positionings), we identify the possibilities available to participants in the classroom.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Berge, M., & Danielsson, A. T. (2013). Characterising Learning Interactions: A Study of University Students Solving Physics Problems in Groups. Research in Science Education, 43(3), 1177-1196. doi:10.1007/s11165-012-9307-0 Bernstein, Basil. "Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay." British Journal of Sociology of Education 20.2 (1999): 157-173. Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning - the Discursive Production of Selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43-63. doi:DOI 10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x Foucault, M., & Gordon, C. (1980). Power/knowledge : selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977 (1. American ed.). New York: Pantheon. Harré, R., Moghaddam, F. M., Cairnie, T. P., Rothbart, D., & Sabat, S. R. (2009). Recent Advances in Positioning Theory. Theory & Psychology, 19(1), 5-31. doi:10.1177/0959354308101417 Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (1999). Positioning theory : moral contexts of intentional action. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. Hazari, Z., Cass, C., & Beattie, C. (2015). Obscuring power structures in the physics classroom: Linking teacher positioning, student engagement, and physics identity development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(6), 735-762. doi:10.1002/tea.21214 Hazari, Z., Sonnert, G., Sadler, P. M., & Shanahan, M. C. (2010). Connecting High School Physics Experiences, Outcome Expectations, Physics Identity, and Physics Career Choice: A Gender Study. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(8), 978-1003. doi:10.1002/tea.20363 Marton, F., Fensham, P., & Chaiklin, S. (1994). A Nobel's eye view of scientific intuition: discussions with the Nobel prize‐winners in physics, chemistry and medicine (1970‐86). International Journal of Science Education, 16(4), 457-473. doi:10.1080/0950069940160406 Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA. Nyström, E. (2007). Talking and taking positions : an encounter between action research and the gendered and racialised discourses of school science. (Dissertation), Umeå University, Umeå. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-1135 Reinsvold, L. A., & Cochran, K. F. (2012). Power dynamics and questioning in elementary science classrooms. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 23(7), 745-768. Søndergaard, M. D. (2002). Poststructuralist approaches to empirical analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 15(2), 187-204. doi:10.1080/09518390110111910 Tan, & Hong, H. (2014). Learning Science in High School: What is actually going on? International Journal of Science Education, 36(4), 677-692. doi:10.1080/09500693.2013.823676 Traweek, S. (1988). Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
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