Toward pedagogías entrenzadas: Braiding critical and asset-based pedagogies of sciences, languages, and cultural responsiveness

Abstract

Recent reforms in science education shift the focus of instruction to supporting students' sensemaking about phenomena. At the same time, discussions of equity in science education have become more common and more contested. For emergent bilingual (EB) learners, there is growing consensus that these trends together imply valuing diverse linguistic and cultural resources that students draw upon to make sense of the world. However, asset-based pedagogies often do not attend to the role of oppression and the co-construction of linguistic and racial marginalization. Furthermore, culturally responsive pedagogies push beyond valuing student assets to challenge the end goals of education, emphasizing the development of critical consciousness. Through this case study of one thematic unit within a transitional bilingual physical science class, this study puts forth pedagogías entrenzadas as a purposeful braiding of asset and critical pedagogies that attend to science, language, and cultural responsiveness. The study took place in a Title I school in the suburbs of a large midwestern city where the majority of students are from Latin American immigrant families. Pedagogías entrenzadas are articulated through the analysis of classroom episodes that attended to language, science, and cultural responsiveness in combination. By attending to these three facets in braided ways, the teacher created ruptures in systems that structurally exclude EB students. We present three classroom episodes in conjunction with additional evidence from a larger data set to demonstrate the ways pedagogías entrenzadas created spaces where (1) generative themes and words created opportunities for holistic sensemaking; (2) there were opportunities to consider and critique language and science; and (3) heterogeneity in linguistic, cultural, and academic resources was upheld and valued. The implications of this pedagogical work extended outside of the classroom, where the teacher successfully advocated with colleagues for the creation of an asset-based bilingual science program.