Bridging Science and Language Development Through Interdisciplinary and Interorganizational Collaboration: What Does It Take?

Abstract

This study addressed the intractable issue of ensuring that all students, including those who are linguistically and culturally diverse, have access to high quality science education. We explored the efforts of two organizations in the United States (one that supports science teachers and one that focuses on language development) to design resources that can inform science instruction for multilingual learners. We used Bronstein’s (2003) framework for interdisciplinary collaboration to shed light on the institutional, program, and interpersonal factors that defined and helped sustain the collaboration between the two organizations. The findings showcase what it takes to integrate equity, science, and language development considerations in resources designed to inform content-area instruction for multilingual learners. The paper adds to the nascent literature on the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in supporting the science education of multilingual students and is unique in its exploration of both the process and the product of this collaboration.