Community and classroom contexts for understanding nature and naturally occurring events in rural schools in Mexico

Abstract

In this study, we develop a portrait of how teachers in two, rural Mexican, multi-age classrooms (grades 1-6) deliberately situate science instruction within the local community and teach social discourse practices to mediate their students’ transitions between science, school, and community settings. One important means of social mediation was the teachers’ commitment to constructing authentic contexts for instruction. In addition, both teachers facilitated the learning of three sets of social discourse practices that are integral to science teaching and learning: responsibility and autonomy, cross-age interaction and collaboration, and public performance. The social discourse practices that we observed in these classrooms can be seen as potential foundations for engaging in culturally responsive, inquiry-based, science instruction grounded in the ways of learning science that many Mexican immigrant students are likely to have encountered.