Creating discursive wiggle room: The generation of third space in middle school urban science classroomsA qualitative study of the social organization and discourse in a middle school urban science classrooms.

Kelli WoodrowUniversity of Colorado at Boulderkelli.woodrow@colorado.edu

Funded by a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.

Social Space of Practice

Three social spaces of practiceOfficial space

Unofficial space

Third space (Gutierrez and Stone (2000).

ScriptsOfficial script (recitation script)

Counterscript

Hybrid script

Unofficial Space

CounterscriptStudents

Official Space

Official scriptTeacher

Third Space Hybrid Script

Teachers and Students

The Classroom Study

Questions:What kinds of spaces and scripts are employed in project classrooms?

What pedagogical strategies and conditions foster the development of third space?

Methods

Qualitative Ethnographic Study Data collection

•Participant observation•Audio and video recording•Formal and informal interviews•Student focus groups•Artifact collection

Participants:5 different urban eighth grade science teachers at three different schools.

3 graduate student outreach scientists

8th grade African American and Latino students in participating classrooms

Data Analysis

Spradley’s (1980) domain analysis and taxonomic analysis.

1st level analysis identified all of the scripts and spaces in the classroom.

2nd level analysis focused on domains within and across 3rd spaces.

Cliff: have you seen the movie John Q.? Mr. Thomas: Mhmm [affirmatively nods]Cliff: Okay, is there any way that anybody in here –that, that could happen to them?Mr. Thomas: Well, which part?Cliff: The little boy where he just –ehhhh? (Makes a choking gesture with his hands around his own neck.) He is just spent.Mr. Thomas: Well, I forget what kind of sickness he had, but people can develop problems with their hearts at any time in their lives.Cliff: I'm scared.Mr. Thomas: Well don’t be.

Ms. Ramey: I think he had a congenital, meaning at birth, he had something wrong. His parents weren’t aware of it and so he had lived all of this time with no symptoms of being ill. So this kid had something wrong from birth and they didn’t tell us. It could have been a hole in the heart or it just didn’t do right. In fact, I even had a friend when I was 19 and he had a heart attack, but he had a congenital, meaning from birth, a heart defect and he died. He was in athletics and everything. He was a senior in high school, he had just married one of my best friends and he just dropped dead. No one expected it. So unless you have something—and you can go your whole life and not know, you’re right. You could drop dead cause if you had something and its there from birth and you are running around having a good time and no one ever knew anything, you could have a heart attack like that kid. So, I think that is what you see in that movie John Q, but the main thing in that movie, they are trying to prove the pros and cons of getting on the transplant list, or who gets on first or who can get the next heart. That was the real focus of that movie (H_Ramey_3_25).

Findings

Third space was initiated through:

•Student questions—70% of the time•Student comments—22% of the time

Teachers ultimately determined whether or not 3rd Space flourished by:•Responding to and elaborating on student questions•Incorporating student comments into the lesson

Recommendations

Investigate factors involved in sustaining a longer hybrid script Examine concrete learning advantages of third space

Focus on the exploration and extension of students’ questions and comments within the context of the curriculum.

Further Analysis

Future Study

The funds of knowledge that are employed in the various spaces.

The locations of visible scientific sensemaking.