Page 259 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

18 A Case Study of David, a Native Hawaiian Science Teacher 233

situated identities and activities that recruit the specialist language [and] value these
identities and activities” (p. 93).
Initial science identities are not always grounded in school-based activities though
access to science communities is largely institutionally controlled. Paul Coleman, a
Native Hawaiian astronomer at the University of Hawaii, revealed in a recent lecture
that he decided to become a physicist when he was 7 because his favorite comic book
superhero, Spiderman, was a college physics student. Imagined worlds can provide
identities that become real through participation in activity systems that prepare a
child who desires to be a physicist with the tools and Discourse of physicists.

Viewing Schooling in Hawaii from a CHAT Perspective

A view of learning as situated, expansive, and agentic, yet embedded in historical
and sociocultural contexts suggests the perspectives of indigenous elders and learn-
ers can yield insight into cultural ways of learning. Meyer’s (1998) synthesis of
interviews with Native Hawaiian elders on indigenous ways of learning and know-
ing identified the centrality of place, practice, and cultural context: “Sites of prac-
tice, where the product, process and context were Hawaiian – that (sic) was where
both information and practice synergized and strengthened the threads of cultural
continuity” (p. 143). Similarly, Kawakami and Aton’s (2000) study found authen-
tic, personalized, experience-based learning a critical factor for Native Hawaiian
students. In contrast, conventional school science as taught and learned as a body
of culture-free content and principles obscures its own historical roots as it excludes
cultural perspectives relating knowledge to place, practices, and nature (Aikenhead
and Ogawa 2007).
Gee, a sociolinguist, views learning as apprenticeship in the meaning-making
and social practices of groups with recognized Discourses, or “ways of displaying
membership in a particular social group or social network” (1992, p. 106). He criti-
cized schools that “do not offer … full and meaningful apprenticeships to minority
and lower socioeconomic children” (p. 150). The importance of apprenticeship in
acquisition of disciplinary Discourses supports the immersion of science teachers
as learners in authentic activity networks to develop multiple literacies spanning
culture, science, and pedagogy. Teachers who understand the relationships among
power, discourse, and identity recognize the importance of teaching from a cultural
asset versus cultural deficit position. These teachers are especially critical to the
success of marginalized students as “the challenge of minority socialization entails
learning to manage life in multiple worlds” (Stanton-Salazar 1997, p. 33).
Expert teachers demonstrate pedagogical content knowledge, a concept proposed
by Shulman (1986) that incorporates diverse and situated knowledge of content,
students, curricula, and pedagogy in effective teaching. Shulman (cited by Sparks
1992) commented on the complex nature of teacher expertise:
We have observed repeatedly how critical the mastery of content and pedagogy is for the
development of teachers, over and above their ability to manage a class. We have seen how