TY - JOUR

T1 - “On Mars, we will speak Arabic”

T2 - Negotiating identity in upper secondary physics in Denmark

AU - Doerr, Katherine

AU - Bruun, Jesper

N1 - Funding Information: Many thanks to Karen Alavi Voigt and Viktor Holm\u2010Janas for their work in collecting data and supporting the implementation of the MarsBase project, and to Sanne Harder for assistance with the aestethic aspects of the comics. Sincere thanks to KT's colleagues in Malm\u00F6 who read and commented on an earlier version of the manuscript, and to Jill Marshall, Anders Johansson and Bj\u00F8rn Friis Johannsen who helped develop the final version. The research was funded by NovoNordiskFonden with grant number NNF18OC0052291. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Science Education published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Seeking to make upper secondary school physics more relevant and engaging, an online collaborative learning curriculum was designed. Each of the curriculum's lessons was structured as a goal-based scenario about human scientists on Mars. Video and audio data from the curriculum's implementation in Denmark was collected. This study utilized the theoretical lenses intersectionality, repertoires of practice, and epistemic agency. The use of comics as an analytical tool provided a novel and accessible way to depict the complex dynamics within the physics classroom. It allowed for a multimodal representation of the data and enabled a nuanced examination of the students' interactions. Findings suggest that interactions were shaped by the students' identities and these dynamics shaped their repertoires of practice. Moreover, the interactions had a profound impact on students' epistemic agency in physics. Collaborative learning with a goal-based scenario can include and empower diverse gender, racial, and language identities. It can also, however, work to disempower and exclude when the hegemonically white and masculine culture of physics is left unproblematized. This leads to the conclusion that if reform-based science education is untethered from a critical stance on socioscientific issues, students and teachers may reproduce social problems as much as they also may challenge them.

AB - Seeking to make upper secondary school physics more relevant and engaging, an online collaborative learning curriculum was designed. Each of the curriculum's lessons was structured as a goal-based scenario about human scientists on Mars. Video and audio data from the curriculum's implementation in Denmark was collected. This study utilized the theoretical lenses intersectionality, repertoires of practice, and epistemic agency. The use of comics as an analytical tool provided a novel and accessible way to depict the complex dynamics within the physics classroom. It allowed for a multimodal representation of the data and enabled a nuanced examination of the students' interactions. Findings suggest that interactions were shaped by the students' identities and these dynamics shaped their repertoires of practice. Moreover, the interactions had a profound impact on students' epistemic agency in physics. Collaborative learning with a goal-based scenario can include and empower diverse gender, racial, and language identities. It can also, however, work to disempower and exclude when the hegemonically white and masculine culture of physics is left unproblematized. This leads to the conclusion that if reform-based science education is untethered from a critical stance on socioscientific issues, students and teachers may reproduce social problems as much as they also may challenge them.

KW - epistemic agency

KW - gender

KW - physics

KW - race/ethnicity

KW - translanguaging

U2 - 10.1002/sce.21898

DO - 10.1002/sce.21898

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85200027534

JO - Science Education

JF - Science Education

SN - 0036-8326

ER -