New Perspectives in Science Education
Science Capital in our Classrooms: A Second-Order Practitioner Inquiry in Initial Science Teacher Education
Veronica McCauley, School of Education, University of Galway (Ireland)
Adriana Cardinot, Postgraduate Programme in Natural Sciences, Laboratory of Physical Sciences, Centre of Science and Technology, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF) (Brazil)
Maria Priscila Castro, Postgraduate Programme in Natural Sciences, Laboratory of Physical Sciences, Centre of Science and Technology, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF) (Brazil)
Abstract
Science capital has become an influential lens for understanding unequal patterns of science engagement and participation, and the Science Capital Teaching Approach (SCTA) offers a practical pathway towards a more inclusive science pedagogy. However an important translation problem remains. Research with practising teachers suggests that developing conceptual understanding of science capital does not necessarily lead to enactive mastery, and therefore being able to operationalise the concept of science capital in their pedagogical practice [1]. Less is known about how beginning secondary science teachers learn to make this move from science capital to pedagogical action. This paper presents a practitioner-research approach embedded within an initial teacher education science programme in Ireland. Student teachers conduct individual projects within a common research architecture: they map patterns across pupils’ science-capital dimensions, interpret those patterns as situated resources, identify, and design, enact and reflect through a locally responsive intervention. With separate consent for student teacher and secondary school pupil participation; anonymised pupil data, intervention designs and practitioner reflections contribute to an overarching study. Drawing on second-order action research [2, 3], this paper examines how novice teachers learn to operationalise science capital in practice. We propose a Science Capital Inquiry-to-Action approach as a guiding structure for initial teacher education and as a means of generating cumulative knowledge from otherwise discrete practitioner projects. The contribution is both science-capital specific and methodological, positioning science-capital-informed pedagogical reasoning itself as an object of research.
Keywords: Science capital; Science Capital Teaching Approach; practitioner research; student teachers; pedagogical reasoning; second-order inquiry
REFERENCES
[1] King, H., Nomikou, E., Archer, L., & Regan, E. (2015). Teachers’ understanding and operationalisation of ‘science capital’. International Journal of Science Education, 37(18), 2987–3014. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2015.1119331
[2] Capobianco, B. M., & Feldman, A. (2006). Promoting quality for teacher action research: Lessons learned from science teachers’ action research. Educational Action Research, 14(4), 497–512. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650790600975668
[3] Feldman, A. (2020). Insiders and outsiders: The place of second-order action research in Educational Action Research. Educational Action Research, 28(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2020.1706307
