ERIC Number: EJ817129
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Dec
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1871-1502
EISSN: N/A
Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A Case Study from India
Sharma, Ajay
Cultural Studies of Science Education, v3 n4 p811-841 Dec 2008
This paper presents a case study of science teaching in an eighth grade school classroom in India. It comes out of a larger ethnographic study done in 2005 that looked at how science was taught and learned in a rural government run middle school in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India. Subscribing to a sociocultural perspective, the paper presents a narrative account of how a science teacher negotiated and made use of the existing discourses that influenced his teaching practice to construct learning experiences for his students. It is a portrait of him as a bricoleur, engaged in making-do with what is of available to conform to prescriptive discursive norms as well as engage in situated, contingent and collaborative pedagogical improvisations with his students. Through a discursive analysis of Mr. Raghuvanshi's teaching practice, this paper presents his bricolage as a feature of everyday sociocultural practices, and as an instance of glocalization of decontextualized school science discourse. It also offers a case for creation and strengthening of material conditions that support enactment of teacher agency for construction of meaningful and relevant learning experiences for students. [Abstract presented in both English and Hindi.]
Descriptors: Sociocultural Patterns, Ethnography, Grade 8, Teaching Methods, Case Studies, Rural Schools, Middle School Teachers, Science Instruction, Science Teachers, Science Education, Educational Environment, Foreign Countries, Teacher Role
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 8; Middle Schools
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A