Aprendiendo a ser nosotros / as mismos/as

inconsistent informal and formal science instruction during the school year. This was evident in the preliminary student focus group, staff interview, and my observations. In the preliminary interviews, the first question I asked was “tell me about science this year?” or “how has science been going this year?” When I posed this to the students, they looked at one another waiting for someone to answer. I observed them displaying non-verbal cues of nervousness such as

avoiding eye contact, looking to one another to answer, and fidgeting. Eventually Jacobi spoke up and expressed that they hadn’t had much science throughout the school year. “We haven’t did science like that, we did health” said Jacobi (Focus group interview, April 28, 2016). When the question was asked to the staff, they expressed frustration over the lack of science being taught. Lack of time for science and a lack of perceived importance towards science, compared to the other core subjects of reading, writing, and math were expressed as causes for the lack of science time. The science teacher shared:

It’s kind of a challenge scheduling a science block, because of course, we have to get in English Language Arts, reading, math and then we have a lot of other subjects that are going on. We have gym, we have social studies, we have all of those things that we of course are drawn away from the time that we have during the day for science as well (One-on-one interview, April 25, 2016).

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Then here’s another mandate and now they’re taking one chunk of science block and dedicating it to something else (reference to a computer program). It’s like wow, why can’t we do that with the reading block or … you know (One-on-one interview, April 25, 2016)?

The paraprofessional reinforced the lack of time for science when she simply stated that the students “haven’t had a lot of science; the little that they do get is very quick” (One-on-one interview, April 29, 2016). The special education teacher was very passionate about the lack of science that was going on during the school year. She added that “They definitely do not give enough emphasis to science, Definitely not enough emphasis on it, No one is forcing it, no one from the district monitors it that I know of, no ones making us do science fair stuff” (One-on-one interview, April 28, 2016).

Aligning to the lack of importance towards science, teachers expressed concern over their lack of science ability and training. The special education teacher described how the school implemented science:

We don’t have a science (teacher) they (teachers) are forced to take (it). They (teachers) have to take positions and you just either naturally gravitate towards science or you gravitate towards social studies. I’m more reading and social studies first and I love history. They usually set up the teacher who does math, they’re usually the science teacher (One-on-one interview, April 28, 2016).

The science/math teacher in a separate interview confirmed that as she described her role as doubling as a science teacher. “I think as teachers, some of the things we have in our

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knowledge base or our tool box is limited. I didn’t go to school to be a scientist. I didn’t go to school to be a science teacher” (One-on-one interview, April 25, 2016).

Although not enough time for science is directly related to the lack of importance for science the special education teacher gave insight as she teased out the difference between the subthemes of importance and time. “I think it’s the trickle effect. I think the district needs to enforce it. We’re so worried about standardized testing scores and what the school is being forced to do, we’re not worried enough about the real learning” (One-on-one interview, April 28, 2016). She then addresses time by stating “there is no science, there’s an hour each day of intervention taking away from class time.”

After the preliminary interviews, I had the impression that very little science curriculum had been taught if any. Science time had been primarily used for a computer intervention time and/or health science. In my observation notes I noted that the first day of my scheduled observation (April 20, 2016), students spent the science time checking out the science books from the library, part of the second observation (April 21, 2016) was also spent having absent students check out science books while the rest of the class waited for them to return. There were only three days of science I observed (April 21, 25, & 26, 2016) being taught where the text book was used before the first informal learning experience was taken. After the first experience a full month had passed and I had been in to observe eight times before the second experience. According to my observations the book was used the day after the Nature walk to finish up answering questions from the previous chapter (May 2, 2016), then again when the section on the water and nitrogen cycle was taught (May, 19, 2016). The teacher was out sick once (May 11, 2016), Math took the place of science (May 12, 2016), the computer intervention took the place of science (May 13, 2016), the graduation practice took place during the scheduled science

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time May 25, 2016), recess was extended into the scheduled science time (May 18, 2016), and an ice cream social took place during the science time (May 27, 2016). On the bus ride to the Fish farm (May 31, 2016), a section was read to the students about forests, but this was not during the scheduled science time.

From my observation notes the book was not used as much as the science teacher and I had planned. The science teacher reiterated her concern for science time in the final interview as she was discussing the interruptions.

It’s non-stop! That’s the kind of day I have to teach, because if I interrupt the morning block, then of course, you’re missing the core subjects that students are supposed to get grades in. Like the sixty minutes of uninterrupted reading, sixty minutes of uninterrupted math. It’s hard to do that, and then schedule science in there (One-on-one interview, June 13, 2016)?

The special education teacher expressed her gratitude for going on the experiences because “it was good that they actually got exposure (to science)” (One-on-one interview, June 13, 2016).

Theme 3: Students are not habitually accessing natural areas. In the preliminary