Science (Sense)making: Interrogating Deficit Classroom Norms with Sensoriality and Critical Frames
Open Access
- Author:
- Brown, Michelle
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 21, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Kimberly Powell, Major Field Member
Allison Henward, Major Field Member
Tanner Vea, Outside Unit & Field Member
Uju Anya, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Carla Zembal-Saul, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Kimberly Anne Powell, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies - Keywords:
- science sensemaking
sensoriality
praxis
Critical Race Theory - Abstract:
- Schools in the United States discipline students and families, particularly those who are intentionally marginalized (e.g., emergent bilingual, new immigrant Latino/Hispanic families), to be still and quiet in classrooms. Systems of white supremacy and racism pervasive in school systems foster teachers’ uninterrogated, habitual, and often hidden, deficit perspectives and their resulting dehumanizing interactions with students and families. My research explores this reality within a 2nd grade science sensemaking space. Along with scholars of sensory ethnography and Critical Race Theory, I assume that our sensorial ways of being are racialized but often unexamined. This dissertation presents three manuscripts which leverage the sensoriality of science sensemaking to de-familiarize deficit-aligned school norms. The manuscripts explore in different ways how engaging with students and families through phenomenon-rich, sensorial, equitable, science sensemaking practices surface deficit norms that discipline families and students to stay still and silent. Each paper unpacks how this disruption creates space for the author and a 2nd grade teacher (both of whom are white and English-dominant) to move toward expansive, asset-aligned, and critical perspectives and practices through iterative cycles of dialogue and praxis. Findings from the studies suggest that sensorial-rich science sensemaking, when paired with a Freirian praxis, can be used to critically examine school norms that position students and families as still and silent. These studies also show the importance of disrupting researcher/teacher hierarchies. In all three studies, the researcher’s move toward self-reflexivity, transparency, and vulnerability with the teacher-led to fruitful collaboration and critical awareness for both individuals.