2023 PhysTEC Conference
Volume 68, Number 2
Friday–Saturday, March 3–4, 2023;
Las Vegas, Nevada, at Caesars Forum Convention Center
Session C01: Curricula and Pedagogy: Making Sense of the Other Lessons We Teach in School
8:00 AM–9:45 AM,
Friday, March 3, 2023
Harrah's
Room: Reno
Abstract: C01.00001 : Curricula and Pedagogy: Making Sense of the Other Lessons We Teach in School
8:00 AM–9:45 AM
Presenter:
Nickolaus Ortiz
(Georgia State University)
Author:
Nickolaus Ortiz
(Georgia State University)
This plenary session seeks to address how curricula and pedagogy are deployed in ways that may marginalize students and reduce the potential of creating affirming spaces in which they learn. Specifically rooted in some of my theorizations around mathematics education, I extend these observations into our sister discipline of physics and science to critically interrogate students' learning environments. At least two educational elements are quite significant to the quality of education that students will receive —the curriculum to which they are exposed, and the pedagogy that their teachers utilize. Given their importance, I provide examples in both domains that serve to underscore the less salient lessons that we teach within these content areas. Thus, I use language, particularly in relation to Black children's linguistic patterns and their language repertoires, to describe the tensions that may exist within science and mathematics learning. This focus on their linguistic repertoires allows one to consider what it means to "talk like a scientist" or to "speak mathematically", problematizing the ways that we socialize students in these spaces, at times to the detriment of their cultural and authentic selves. The question that I pose to attendees is what are those cultural and historical values that our curricula and pedagogical moves socialize students away from, in hopes of making them "better" scientists or mathematicians? The ultimate goal of this plenary is to explore how the curriculum and pedagogy will continue to assist in teaching students much more than we intend, if we do not critically analyze our instructional moves. I proffer that the educational space has the potential to be one where students learn about their cultural practices, in this case, those which are linguistic, and how these practices can be assets in learning environments. Hence, the plenary will conclude by developing a few actionable items towards this end.