Re-imagining science education research toward a language for science perspective

Abstract

With a decade passing since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), it is timely to reflect and consider the extent to which the promise of science teaching and learning that values and centers learners’ varied epistemologies for scientific sensemaking has been realized. We argue that this potential, in part, lies in the hands of our science education research community becoming aware and intentional with how we situate learners’ language-related resources and practices in our work. Hoping to achieve a more inclusive and expansive future where science is for and by all—re-imagining what is possible in science education—we propose science education research move toward a language for science perspective. When taking up this perspective, researchers center the diverse ways that learners adopt and draw upon wide-ranging language resources and practices to explore phenomena, engage in scientific sensemaking and express evolving understandings about our natural world. In this commentary, we describe how we conceptualize a language for science perspective and why we believe such a perspective is critical for carrying out transformative equity-oriented research. We also illustrate one way that this perspective might be taken up, specifically in the context of science education research that integrates translanguaging theory and pedagogy to explore multilingual learners’ scientific sensemaking experiences. Though our commentary is framed within the context of realizing reform-oriented science teaching and learning in the USA, the argument we make is central to the discipline of science and thus is relevant for science education research conducted across the globe.