ERIC Number: EJ1247188
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 42
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-7267
EISSN: N/A
Moving beyond the Agency-Structure Dialectic in Pre-Collegiate Science Education: Positionality, Engagement, and Emergence
Studies in Science Education, v55 n2 p215-256 2019
Agency and structure postulate a dialectic relationship: agents' actions shape and are shaped by social structure in a spiral and dynamic manner. Empirical studies in pre-collegiate science education contexts, however, tend to focus on individual's positionality instead of the engagement between agency and structure. This paper first charts the theoretical and methodological terrains of agency and structure from sociological, critical/post-structural, and psychological perspectives. It then reviews empirical studies on the agency-structure dialectic in pre-collegiate science education with a focus on their theoretical frameworks (agency), research contexts (structure), and related methods and methodologies. The reviewed studies are divided into four categories: teacher agency, teacher-and-student agency, student agency, and administrator agency. The results reveal how the agency-structure dialectic is taken up and studied in science education and how the notions of culture and language provide the possibility for hybrid perspectives of agency. We argue that the notion of emergence, based on the engagement within and among individual and collective agencies and structures, is the key to move beyond the current agency-structure dialectic in science education.
Descriptors: Science Education, Educational Research, Individual Power, Social Structure, Teachers, Students, Administrators, Teacher Student Relationship, Social Science Research, Sociology, Psychological Studies, Educational Change, Social Justice, Educational Improvement, Research Methodology, Critical Theory, Postmodernism
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Information Analyses; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A