Heidi B. Carlone, Catherine M. Scott, Cassi Lowder
8 min
Research into the middle school 'science problem' often focuses on individual psychological factors like self-efficacy or changing motivation. This study takes a different approach by using an ethnographic, longitudinal case study to examine the social and cultural contexts of science learning. By following three diverse students from fourth through sixth grade, the researchers analyzed how classroom structures and cultural norms create 'celebrated' identities, shaping whether students see themselves as scientific.
In fourth grade, the students experienced excellent reform-based pedagogy. Their teacher fostered a classroom culture where 'scientific identity' meant being curious, collaborative, and critical. Students from all backgrounds were encouraged to perform as competent scientific thinkers. By sixth grade, the classroom environment shifted dramatically toward traditional schooling. The pedagogy centered on canonical knowledge, worksheets, and teacher-led lectures. In this setting, the 'celebrated' student was no longer the curious problem-solver, but rather the 'compliant' student who followed directions, memorized facts, and maintained a low profile.
The authors found that students' social identity work is deeply influenced by the available 'figured worlds'—the collective interpretations of reality that define expected behavior. When classroom norms aligned with students' existing identities, their engagement flourished. However, in middle school, the narrowing of allowed subject positions made it difficult for students to maintain their scientific identities. The study reveals that race, class, and gender were not merely background factors; they heavily dictated which students were allowed to successfully inhabit the 'celebrated' roles and which were marginalized or disciplined for their behavior.
This research challenges the assumption that declining science interest is inevitable during adolescence. Instead, it suggests that science education often fails to leverage the diverse resources and social identities that students bring to the classroom. When educators design learning spaces that force students to choose between their personal identity and a narrow definition of a 'good student,' they inadvertently push even capable and interested youth away from scientific paths. The study provides a framework for teachers and researchers to evaluate the equity of their classrooms by examining how classroom norms enable or constrain diverse student identities.
Students' declining science interest in middle school is often attributed to psychological factors like shifts of motivational values, decrease in self-efficacy, or doubts about the utility of schooling in general. This paper adds to accounts of the middle school science problem through an ethnographic, longitudinal case study of three diverse students' identity work from fourth- to sixth-grade school science. Classroom observations and interviews are used as primary data sources to examine: (1) the cultural and structural aspects of the fourth- and sixth-grade classrooms, including the celebrated subject positions, that enabled and constrained students' identity work as science learners; (2) the nature of students' identity work, including their positioning related to the celebrated subject positions within and across fourth- and sixth-grade science; and (3) the ways race, class, and gender figured into students' identity work and positioning. In fourth-grade, all experienced excellent science pedagogy and performed themselves as scientifically competent and engaged learners who recognized themselves and got recognized by others as scientific. By sixth-grade, their identity work in school science became dramatically less scientific. Celebrated subject positions did not demand scientific thinking or robust engagement in scientific practices and were heavily mediated by race, class, and gender. Our results highlight three insights related to the middle school problem: (1) when students' social identity work was leveraged in service of robust science learning, their affiliation increased; (2) academic success in school science did not equate to affiliation or deep engagement with science; and (3) race, class, and gender figured into students' successes in, threats to, and identity work related to becoming scientific. We end the article by providing a framework and questions that teachers, teacher educators, and researchers might use to design and evaluate the equity of science education learning spaces. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51:836–869, 2014.
Sam: What did that look like in the elementary classroom?
Alex: Ms. Wolfe expected children to observe carefully, ask questions, explain evidence, and work through one another's ideas. Being helpful wasn't separate from being scientific. Students had to understand and explain their groupmates' thinking, not just produce their own answers.
Sam: That sounds demanding, rather than simply welcoming. Was everyone expected to contribute?
Alex: Everyone was held accountable for scientific participation, including speaking up. This was also a dual-language classroom, alternating English and Spanish instruction. Patience mattered because students sometimes needed extra time to express ideas in their less familiar language.
Sam: Give us one student whose familiar habits became resources for scientific thinking.
Alex: William was conscientious, eager to please, and sometimes worried about doing things correctly. During a fiddler crab investigation, a classmate proposed feeding the crabs pizza. William worried they might die, and his concern prompted the group to research suitable food before experimenting.
Sam: His caution wasn't being treated as the opposite of inquiry. It helped the group ask what they needed to know before proceeding.
Alex: And Ms. Wolfe pushed him beyond getting tasks finished. When he questioned a steep drop in his experiment's graph, she enthusiastically shared his question. Teacher approval rewarded curiosity, so his desire to please supported scientific thinking.
Sam: How did that same desire work after the classroom changed?
Alex: In Mr. Campbell's sixth-grade classroom, activities mainly involved worksheets, lectures, and occasional labs with prescribed procedures. William remained diligent and liked the class. But his effort focused more on correct answers, following procedures, and completing work than on reasoning through open questions.
Sam: Liking the class complicates the story. This isn't a straightforward account of everyone becoming alienated.
Alex: William even aspired to aerospace engineering and credited Mr. Campbell with influencing that ambition. The authors' concern is narrower: he had fewer opportunities to practice the curiosity and problem-solving he had demonstrated earlier. Satisfaction and reduced scientific participation coexisted.
Sam: What happened to Amy, who also worked hard to meet teachers' expectations?
Alex: Amy came from a socioeconomically privileged White family and adapted easily to school expectations. Earlier, peers recognized her for trying experiments and figuring things out. Later, she remained a top student, but often sought worksheet answers directly from the teacher.
Sam: Asking for help isn't inherently a problem. What makes the authors read that as a change in her participation?
Alex: The contrast is how teachers responded. Ms. Wolfe pressed Amy to explain and solve problems herself; Mr. Campbell repeatedly supplied answers. The authors interpret Amy's sometimes helpless presentation as a way to gain attention within the available roles, not evidence that she lacked ability.
Sam: So adaptation preserved her success, but didn't necessarily preserve her independence as a problem-solver. Was resistance any more productive?
Alex: Aaliyah's story shows its costs. She was an African-American girl whose outspoken, expressive participation had supported detailed observations and evidence-based explanations earlier. Later, creative contributions were sometimes shushed or dismissed, and she became less willing to identify with school science.
Sam: Where do race and gender enter the evidence, rather than just the authors' broader theory?
Alex: They compare how participation was interpreted. Mr. Campbell described Amy's attention-seeking as something he worked to accommodate, but Aaliyah's as driving him up the wall. Aaliyah still earned good grades, yet described herself as not really a science person.
Sam: The argument, then, isn't that a student's background mechanically determines an outcome. It's that recognition and available roles weren't equally accessible.
Alex: That's how the authors frame it. Their term “figured worlds” means shared cultural stories shaping expected behavior. Ms. Wolfe drew on inquiry, family-like collaboration, and childhood playfulness; Mr. Campbell's classroom leaned toward traditional schooling, correct answers, and compliance.
Sam: But contrasting teachers can become a simple good-teacher, bad-teacher story. Does the study account for the conditions around Mr. Campbell?
Alex: It describes parental pressure over grades, wide differences in students' preparation, and funding cuts that removed support. Mr. Campbell spoke about being unable to meet competing needs. The authors present him as well-intentioned and constrained, not as the sole source of the problem.
Sam: How much weight should we put on these cases? Could a different teacher or a different group produce another story?
Alex: My reading is that the evidence is rich for these particular students, but limited for generalization. They were deliberately selected because they excelled and were recognized as smart science students initially. The design cannot isolate teaching from development or the wider school transition.
Sam: So it identifies plausible processes, not how common they are. Who should read the full document, and where should they begin?
Alex: Researchers studying science engagement, identity, or equity should start with the contrasting classroom results and the individual student accounts. Teacher educators should also read the conclusion's question sets: what gets rewarded, whether scientific thinking is required, and whose participation fits. For everyone else, remember this: being rewarded in science class is not the same as being asked to think scientifically.
Sam: Look at what success asks students to do.