Laughing and Learning Together: Intersections of Socioemotional Activity with Science Talk

Abstract

Culturally sustaining and science education theorists advocate that children need to have opportunities to use personal experiences and background knowledge in dialogue with peers as they make sense of phenomena in the natural world. Practically, this is a challenge to orchestrate—both in classrooms and in out-of-school learning spaces—as teachers and learners navigate the personal, interpersonal, and structural components of talk. What is not well understood, are the multitudes of social interactions that support rigorous and responsive talk. In this paper, I examine how a group of nineteen middle school young women fell into naturally occurring forms of friendship-talk as they learned science concepts and learned to take a stand against a toxic lake next door to their school. This multiple case study examined moment-to-moment discourse and interactions between students including facial expressions and body movements to explore the connection between everyday human social activity and productive science. Analysis revealed patterns of strangely familiar forms of friendship and how they were instrumental in constructing a nature walk and an animated film about saving the local lake for community members. This research indicates the need for structured opportunities in science classrooms to share ideas that are also linked to student social and emotional connections.