Young Children’s Transmodal Participation in Science Investigations: Drawing on a Diversity of Resources for Meaning-Making

Abstract

This chapter explores children’s interactions in a multilingual classroom to examine the different ways plurilingual students used communicative resources in interaction during science investigations. The aim of this research is to illuminate how these culturally and linguistically diverse young students drew on numerous resources during science investigations on the topic of worms, using a variety of approaches including digital microscopes. This ethnographic study draws upon video data collected in a mixed-age kindergarten class (4–6-year-old students) to analyze children’s participation whole class dialogue and small group interactions around worm investigations and to consider the ways in which children engaged as they made and expressed meaning. We position science learning as embodied cultural enactment, and we aim to work towards new understandings of the complex processes within translanguaging spaces in science education. The claims from this research underscore the value of dialogic, open-ended classroom structures for facilitating spaces for culturally and linguistically diverse students to draw on their many resources, and to agentically participate in science investigations.