Page 448 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

35 Australian Torres Strait Islander Students 423

(Tobin et al., 2002). Language is a cultural resource upon which individuals (as
agents) can draw on in a science classroom (as a field of practice). There are different
dialects of Torres Strait Creole; however, all speakers can understand one another.
Over 3 years, Philemon investigated how his grade 9 Torres Strait Islander students
employed their home languages (Creole and indigenous languages) and formal
science language (with required expression in English) when learning the concepts
of energy and force. He was interested in how students participated and communi-
cated in relevant science learning activities both with the teacher and with each
other. He wanted to know how students were able to apply and reproduce concepts
of energy and force as constituted in English. He observed what language resources
they drew upon for developing understandings of energy and force. Philemon used
both group and individual techniques to capture students’ language use and concept
knowledge. Islander students prefer to work together, so Philemon collected group
brainstorming notes of everyday ways of knowing, group construction of Venn
Diagrams to compare and contrast ways of knowing, group pre-inquiry and post-
inquiry concept mapping in two learning units, one on energy and the other on
force. He also collected individual student reflections where students were encour-
aged to draw bubble diagrams, pictures and cartoons to represent thoughts and
feelings. Data collection took place during regular, scheduled science lessons and data
collection was integrated into lesson planning. Philemon also made detailed obser-
vations of the languages students employed to discuss science concepts. In many
instances, he observed students abandon English to use Torres Strait Creole to
explain their understandings to one another. Philemon kept records on how keen
students were to actively engage in classroom learning, including speaking, writing
and physical actions.
Of the forty-four students in the study, the large majority, n = 37, or 84%, had
some level of difficulty communicating in English, from limited but able to express
concepts to severe difficulty expressing any concept in English. Only seven of
Philemon’s 44 students (16%) spoke and wrote English with facility. Almost all
students were observed using Creole in the classroom in order to participate in
group conceptual meaning-making. This is a logical strategy on students’ part.
Students may develop quite good understandings of science concepts as discussed
with each other and expressed in Creole. However, unless these same adolescents are
highly able to translate both language and concepts accurately into Standard(ised)
Australian English, they are likely to be judged as attaining only “low” levels of
academic achievement. In contrast to Islander adolescents, students from urban areas
who speak and think English as a first language are distinctly advantaged by current
standardized science assessment practices. All students from remote areas whose
first language is not English face similar challenges in demonstrating what they do
know about the world in the taken-for-granted culture of mass assessment.
Bourdieu’s sociology favours classification as a means for understanding order
through ordering. Classification is an arbitrary cultural act. Philemon, the persis-
tent, Shona-thinking classroom researcher, eventually induced three categories of
how the Torres Strait islander students employed formal science terminology and
demonstrate knowledge of scientific concepts and processes. In Category A, were