Towards a linguistic otherwise in science

Abstract

An otherwise possibility recognizes “infinite alternatives to what is” (Crawley, 2017, p. 2) and acknowledges these alternatives as existing alongside our own ways of knowing and being. For bi/multilingual students, their ways of knowing and being can be represented by their multiple ways of communicating. However, through hegemonic systems of schooling, political polarization, misinformation around science, and language-exclusive ideologies, bi/multilingual students are restricted in bringing their whole personhood when learning science. As listening subjects, teachers, researchers, and students need to attune to students’ multiple ways of knowing, being, and communicating while dismantling ‘settled expectations’ pervasive in science teaching and learning (Bang et al., 2012). For example, certain pedagogical practices reduce possibilities like academic English-only pedagogies. Those practices can promote deficit orientations and ideologies of “languagelessness” onto EMLs (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Rosa, 2016) because they fail to use standardized forms of language, like academic English. This three-paper dissertation explored how to orient toward a linguistic otherwise possibility in science. The first paper was an empirical case study investigating teachers’ collaborative design work within a curriculum-based professional learning community (PLC) to orient toward students multiple ways of communicating as a part of rather than a part from sensemaking in science. The second paper investigated sensemaking moments using interaction analysis within a middle school science classroom context. Specifically, this study examined non-linguistic ways of communication as an otherwise possibility. Finally, the third paper builds from the previous two by examining a subset of three teachers’ pedagogical reasoning as they planned and designed a curriculum customization to strategically incorporate multimodal ways of communication. Building on previous literature about the importance of multimodality as a part of science practices, this paper showcased which curriculum changes shifted how students engaged in science practices and their knowledge-building work inclusive of multiple ways of communication. As a corpus, this dissertation serves as an example of what could it look like to orient towards a linguistic otherwise in science.