Sponsor
National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: DUE‐1439761
Published In
Science Education
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Subjects
Black students, Dance, Science -- Study and teaching, Group identity
Abstract
We explored how arts-based practices, specifically what we define as ethnodance informs the study of science identity. We present a theoretical argument supported by an empirical illustration of how ethnodance offers Black youth with dance identities a medium to narrate evolving science identities, communicating meanings, interactions, and emotions, and to construct identities further as reified artifacts of participating in science classroom communities. The theoretical argument frames dance as an embodied narrative, identity construction as an ongoing process with interactional and affective commitments, and Black Dances as venues of Black bodies’ expressivity of the brilliance, competence, and creativity of Black people. The empirical illustration focuses on Black students in an urban high school choreographing a dance performance to capture their science identity construction transitioning from biology and moving through physics. The students’ semiotic choices communicated the experienced (dis)connection between self and science; ballet, lyrical, and contemporary dances represented experiences challenging their position within science, and a Black Dance, majorette, experiences affirming their place or creating a bridge. Majorette offered students a sense of cultural solidarity, symbolic of their collective overcoming of obstacles faced, frustration, and alienation felt at the beginning of physics, and joy of rising above the struggle.
Rights
This is the final version of record published as part of the NSF grant # DUE‐1439761 licensed under an open access Creative Commons license by the publisher. The published version can also be access on their site:
https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21558
DOI
10.1002/sce.21558
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41214
Citation Details
Chappell, M.J., & Varelas, M. (2020). Ethnodance and Identity: Black students Representing Science Identities in the Making. Science Education,104(2),193-221.