Communities of practice as a framework to explain teachers' experiences within the community of science

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, we argue that current conceptual frameworks used to understand how novices make sense of science ignore K‐12 teachers' understanding to a detriment. If teachers are supposed to translate the content, context, and culture of science to their students, then it is important for researchers and policymakers to understand how this happens. Communities of science practice (COSP) research identify the ways in which novices make sense of the practices of science within a space where they interact with, observe, and are affected by other members at varying levels of legitimacy. In brief, K‐12 students are rarely exposed to the COSP; therefore, teachers must translate these cultural pieces to their students while simultaneously teaching the content and practices of sciences. We chose to focus on teachers who participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. The RET program served as a brief exposure to a COSP for these teachers. The goal for our study was to develop a conceptual framework to study teachers' experiences as spectator novices within a RET program. Spectator novice was the term we used to define teachers' roles as novices moving toward legitimacy within the COSP but with a different goal—that of observing the culture and translating it to their students—from science undergraduate and graduate students who are attempting to become full legitimate participants within the community. Through interviews with teachers, we developed a conceptual framework that can guide future research on the unique experiences of teachers as spectator novices within the COSP.