Mediating hybrid spaces in the bilingual science class by learning to cultivate children's metaphors

Abstract

Figurative language in science teaching has recently been explored to inform how teachers can scaffold scientific advancement without excluding children's cultural conceptualizations. By deeming metaphorical language as a mediational artifact that agentively encodes culturally relevant aspects of experience, this study analyzed how bilingual children's metaphor initiations were followed up by teacher candidates to create hybrid spaces for learning alongside zones of proximal development. Our findings indicate three different patterns of how teachers reacted to bilingual children's metaphors during a science lesson on geomorphology, and how their differing responses may have facilitated or hindered children's scientific understandings. This study highlights the significance of cultivating opportunities for metaphorical associations initiated by bilingual children as opportunities for science teaching and learning.