Examining elementary teachers’ puzzles: a cross-disciplinary analysis
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2020-06
DOI
Authors
Manz, Eve
Gibbons, Lynsey
Okun, Ada
Chalmers-Curren, Jenn
O'Connor, Mary Catherine
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
Eve Manz, Lynsey Gibbons, Ada Okun, Jenn Chalmers-Curren, Mary Catherine O'Connor. 2020. "Examining Elementary Teachers’ Puzzles: A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis." International Society of the Learning Sciences. International Conference of the Learning Sciences
Abstract
We present a cross-disciplinary analysis of the puzzles and tensions elementary teachers
experience as they conduct classroom discussion. We describe two teachers’ framings and sense-making
about the puzzle of how (much) to steer discussion in light of instructional goals, considering similarities
and differences across teachers and disciplines.
This work is part of a project to understand how elementary teachers learn to conduct classroom discussions in
ways that support deep disciplinary learning and seek to disrupt settled expectations of disciplines, children, and
teaching (Bang, Warren, Rosebery, & Medin, 2012). We assume that systems of oppression permeate teaching
and learning, for example, through curriculum structures, how subject matter is constituted, and privileged ways
of speaking and acting (Bang et al, 2012; Esmonde & Booker, 2016).
This poster shares how we have sought to understand the puzzles and tensions that elementary teachers
experience as they conduct classroom discussion. We focus on puzzles because they provide windows into
teacher sense-making and they may reveal opportunities to work with teachers around their own concerns at the
intersection of disciplines, classroom discourse, and power. When teachers frame and try to make sense of
puzzles and tensions, they draw upon practices, curriculum materials, and categories for labeling students (Hall
& Horn, 2012) that inevitably reflect the dominant ideologies of society, school disciplines, and disciplinary
knowing (Louie, 2020).
We are interested in understanding how teachers' puzzles and tensions might be similar and different
across school disciplines. While elementary teachers typically work with one group of children across content
areas, researchers have tended to approach studying and supporting teachers’ practice from the perspective of a
particular discipline (e.g., mathematics). We seek to understand how the puzzles and tensions that emerge for
teachers might be shaped by school disciplines, and how they can serve to make visible the contradictions and
dominant ideologies of larger systems.