CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

RESEARCH

Parents’ Experiences

Residential neighborhood Fa

mily

Inco

me

Extracurricular Activities

Educational opportunities

Fam

ily p

ract

ices

Expectations of significant others

Personal values Personal interests

Preferences

LENSES

THEORIES CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

They consist of a set of concepts, shared ideas that capture regularities in events, that seeks to explain how and why. They are broad enough in scope to apply to numerous situations under a myriad of circumstances.

They consist of various concepts that originate from different theories. These concepts are used to develop understandings of the unfamiliar and reveal new insights about the unfamiliar.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS IN ACTION

Research Questions Methods

What data are collected How data are analyzed

Findings How they are framed and explained

Implications What is highlighted as important

Individual

Contexts in close proximity to the individual

Individual

context

context

context

context

INDIVIDUALS AND CONTEXT

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Human development is mediated by culture. The development of individuals is embedded in the culture in which they live.

Human development is influenced by power structures and subsequent relations that exist within historical and contemporary contexts in which development occurs.

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Communities of Practice Figured Worlds Funds of Knowledge Third Space Culture (cultural difference, cultural

reproduction) Social constructivism Activity Theory

Rules Community Division of Labor

Mediating Artifact

Subject Object

Outcome

horizontal vertical (Engestrom et al, 1999)

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Social Reproduction Cultural Reproduction Colonialism Hegemony Critical Social Theory Critical Feminist Theory Critical Race Theory

CRITICAL RACE THEORY TENETS

Racism is normal in America. Racism has advantaged some groups over others

(whiteness as property, interest convergence). The existence and attainability of objectivity,

neutrality, color-blindness, and meritocracy are questionable at best and are vehicles to maintain an oppressive status quo at worst.

Historical and contextual analyses of phenomena are imperative.

The experiential knowledge of people of color and their communities of origin are central to analysis of phenomena.

RACISM

Racism is a combination of racial prejudice (racial biases) and power that is used to dominate and oppress. Prejudice and power in concert are employed in maintaining and advancing a person or a group’s dominance. Racism functions at the level of individuals (individual racism) and institutions (institutional racism.) (Bonilla-Silva, 1997)

HISTORICAL AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSES

Cultural-Historical

Ontogeny Microgenesis

(Cole, 1996)

WHITENESS AS PROPERTY

The right to possess The right to use

Power to decide who is included and excluded

The right to dispossess Power to transfer privileges to others

(Harris, 1995)

Parents’ Experiences

Residential neighborhood Fa

mily

Inco

me

Extracurricular Activities

Educational opportunities

Fam

ily p

ract

ices

Expectations of significant others

Personal values Personal interests

Preferences

WHAT CONCEPTUAL OR THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS ARE MOST SUITED FOR YOUR WORK?

REFERENCES

Bonilla-Silva, E. (1997). Rethinking racism: Toward a structural interpretation. American Sociological Review, 62(3), 465-480.

Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Engestrom, Y., Miettinen, R., & Punamaki, R-L. (1999). Perspectives on activity theory. NY: Cambridge University Press.

Harris, C. (1995). Whiteness as property. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds) Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 276-291). NY: The New Press

Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47-68.