supporting english language learners in the science classroom through critical pedagogy

ADELINA ALEGRIA

SUPPORTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERSIN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM THROUGH CRITICAL

PEDAGOGY

Received: 4 August 2012; Accepted: 15 January 2013

ABSTRACT. This article presents an exploratory case study of a teacher’s knowledge,understanding, and practice of critical pedagogy in a sheltered instruction high school biologyclassroom. This case study relied on the use of fieldnotes, videotape recordings, interviews,and transcripts to showcase the practices and activities taking place in the classroom. Theevidence gathered throughout this case study demonstrates that Ms. Rodriguez has been ableto establish a classroom environment and develop curricula that reflect the major criticalpedagogy themes: (a) identity/personal growth, (b) academic/cognitive development, and (c)critical understanding of society, power, inequality, and students’ own personal power tochange their statuses or roles. These themes were identified in different events during theteaching of her genetic unit, ethnobotany unit, and personal issues activity. As a scienceeducator and SI teacher, Ms. Rodriguez has realized that for her students to be able to succeedacademically and in life, she needs to center her instruction and curricula on her students’personal lives, academic needs, and an awareness of their surrounding community.

KEY WORDS: case study, critical pedagogy, English language learners, high school,science learning

Over the last two decades, bilingual educators and educational researchershave worked together to develop and refine an effective approach tosupport English learners’ language development and content knowledge(e.g. mathematics, science, social studies, and English language arts).Rather than relying on lectures and/or audio-lingual methods to“transmit” information, teachers utilize cooperative learning, aurallanguage, literacy development strategies, multimedia, visuals, andmulticultural resources to motivate English language learners (Ells) tolearn both academic content and the English language simultaneously.

SHELTERED INSTRUCTION

Sheltered instruction (SI) proposes that Ells be taught content matterthrough literacy development and active involvement. Within thisframework, Ells read about, write about, manipulate, and discuss thecontent area with one another to ensure conceptual understanding. SI

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education (2014) 12: 99Y121# National Science Council, Taiwan 2013

combines second language acquisition principles with those elements ofquality teaching that make a lesson comprehensible to Ells (Echevarria,Vogt & Short, 2004). This approach emphasizes the following: (a)content learning, (b) English language development, and (c) thedevelopment of higher level thinking skills. To accomplish the content/language learning and critical thinking development, teachers organizeinstruction around the principles of active participation, social interaction,integration of language and content, use of real books and real tasks, andbuilding up background or prior knowledge (Amaral, Garrison &Klentschy, 2002; Chamot & O’Malley, 1994; Echevarria et al., 2004;Stoddart, Final, Latzke & Canaday, 2002). This approach has beenstrongly influenced by Genesee’s (1994) research on immersion programs(Canada) and by Chamot & O’Malley (1994) research on the CognitiveAcademic Language Learning Approach.

However, although bilingual educators and educational researchershave successfully addressed the academic needs of Ells using research-based instructional models such as SI, they have been unable to closethe gap between Ells and non-Ells in the “gate-keeper” content areasof mathematics and science. According to the Nation’s Report Card,Ells’ mathematics scale scores still exhibit a 42-point deficit relative toall non-English language learners across the country (NationalAssessment of Educational Progress, 2011). In science, the academicgap is similarly significant, with the Ells demonstrating a 48-point gap(NAEP, 2011).

To better address the achievement gap, a number of progressivemathematics and science education researchers have began to recommenda teacher-created classroom environment where academic, emotional,racial, gender, and social class issues intersect as key elements in anapproach known as critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Giroux, 1988; Shor,1992). When SI is embedded in critical pedagogy, the teacher can createan effective learning environment for Ells.

What makes this an effective dual approach for Ells is the way inwhich critical pedagogy overarches instruction. Critical pedagogy bindsinstruction explicitly to students’ background knowledge by engagingsociocultural or sociopolitical contexts in the lesson. In contrast to criticalpedagogy, SI represents the core language acquisition principles neededfor developing literacy, discourse, and higher-order thinking skills(Cummins, 1989; Echevarria et al., 2004). Taken together, both criticalpedagogy and SI define an effective learning environment for Ells.

This research responds to the call to close the gap between Ells andnon-Ells in the “gate-keeper” content areas of mathematics and science by

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describing how critical pedagogy is interpreted to occur across instruc-tional sessions observed in a mixed ninth and tenth grade urban highschool biology classroom. Using a case study approach, this researcherdescribes and explores experiences and practices of a Latina biologyteacher, who has attempted to create a classroom environment where herElls not only thrive academically but also contribute to the developmentof a learning community in the classroom and school. This is anexploratory case study of a teacher’s knowledge, understanding, andpractice of critical pedagogy in the biology classroom. Using a casestudy approach, this researcher describes and explores experiences andpractices of a Latina biology teacher, who has been able to create aclassroom environment where her Ells not only thrive academically butalso contribute to the development of a learning community in theclassroom and school. This is an exploratory case study of a teacher’sknowledge, understanding, and practice of critical pedagogy in thebiology classroom.

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW

In this study, the guiding questions are grounded by critical pedagogy, aneducational theory and movement that originated from Paulo Freire’s“liberation narrative” and was shaped by the ideas and philosophy ofMacedo, Greene, Aronowitz, Ayon, McLaren, Shor, Girox, and Hooks.Critical pedagogy is rooted in critical theory, which originated in theFrankfurt Schools, and was founded on the idea that the lens ofunbalanced power relations based on class, race, and gender remains akey means of analyzing and critiquing academic opportunities, socialinstitutions, and power structures (Darder, Baltodano & Torres, 2003).

A review of the critical pedagogy literature reflects four main themesthat were used by the researcher to analyze the data collected. The themesemphasized were as follows:

� Teaching that focuses on the students’ culture, socioeconomic status,familial connections, and identity—who they are (identity/personalgrowth).

� Teaching that emphasizes academic skills and knowledge of thestudent as well as his or her development of critical thinking(academic/cognitive).

� Teaching that develops students’ critical understanding of society,power, the inequality embedded in activities to make the students

SUPPORTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS 101

aware of their role in society, their understanding of inequality—whois in power and why—and their own personal power to change theirstatus or role.

Identity/Personal Growth

Critical pedagogy challenges teachers to develop and establish a literacyof power in the classroom. Macedo (Freire & Macedo, 1987) ties thisliteracy of power directly to what he describes as an emancipatoryliteracy. An emancipatory literacy, Macedo posits, involves a teacher-developed classroom environment where students become knowledgeableand appreciative of their histories and experiences and the culture of theireveryday environments.

Shor (1992) recognizes that critical pedagogy is centered on studentsand social change. This is a student-centered curriculum for a multicul-tural democracy that recognizes individual growth as an active,cooperative, and social process because the self and society create eachother.

In this same context, Macedo writes that students celebrate who theyare while learning to manage ways of seeing and being that are not theirown. Critical pedagogy supports students from marginalized backgroundsin making their own history (Freire & Macedo, 1987; Macedo, 1994;Macedo & Bartolome, 2001).

According to Kincheloe (2008), critical pedagogy makes teaching apolitical practice that involves the act of assisting the students from everysocial stage to communicate their own demands and critique the existingsocial and political organizations that shape their futures (Kincheloe,2008).

Giroux (1988) informs us that critical pedagogy:

� Focus curriculum knowledge on peoples’ authentic lived histories.� Authenticate teachers’ and students’ own language connected to

particular cultural practices.

He suggests that teachers must construct curricula that draw upon thecultural resources that students bring with them to school—theirlanguages, their histories, their experiences, and their voices.

Academic/Cognitive

According to Freire (1970), teachers must create a literacy-rich socialenvironment where students are challenged to critique their experiences

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despite their sociopolitical context and create and act on alternative meansto transform their past experiences. Literacy in the students’ worldbecomes the tool by which transformation is possible, a tool to “read theword, read the world” and then “write the word, write the world” (Freire& Macedo, 1987), creating a language of hope and possibility.

Shor (1992) believes the goals of critical pedagogy are to relatepersonal growth to public life, to develop strong skills, academicknowledge, habits of inquiry, and critical curiosity about society, power,and inequality. The learning process is negotiated between the teacher andthe students with a mutual teacher–student authority.

In Hook’s words, critical pedagogues must be aware of the narrowboundaries that shape the way knowledge is produced and transmitted in theclassroom. Such processes reflect the status quo in education that hasunderminedAmerican claims to democracy. However, the classroom remainsa location of possibility despite all of its limitations. In that field of possibility,teachers have the opportunity to develop an academic environment wherestudents think critically and begin to transform their education. Thisrepresents education as the practice of freedom (Hooks, 1994).

Students’ Critical Understanding of Society, Power, Inequality, and TheirOwn Personal Power to Change Their Status or Role

Freire (1970) exposes education as a political tool that can either renderstudents as objects under the rule of the oppressors or as citizens with thepower to transform their lives. He refused to accept the traditional “banking”method of instruction where students remain as empty vessels waiting toreceive the approved knowledge of the power class. When students are ableto think of themselves as such empowered agents, then they (i.e. students andteachers) can develop their capacities as democratic agents and social critics:Everyone becomes involved in the learning process and the critique oflearning taking place (Shor, 1992; Shor & Freire, 1987).

Aronowitz (1993) believes that critical pedagogy is centered on theidea that knowledge must have a practical intent, that is, directed tochanging the conditions of everyday life and addressing the problem ofpower, even if its uses are deferred to an indefinite future.

McLaren (2003) tells us that critical pedagogues must create anenvironment where the teacher and students address emancipatoryquestions such as, “Why do certain types of knowledge legitimate certaingender, class, and racial interests? What is the relationship between socialclass and knowledge taught in school? Why do we value scientificknowledge over informal knowledge?” (pp. 72–73). Teachers who


embrace critical pedagogy understand and attempt to address the effectsof race, class, and gender in their own activist stance as well as in theirclassroom content and methods (Chubbuck & Lorentz, 2005).

In his interview with Carlos Torres (1998), Giroux explains that criticalpedagogy attempts to break down the existing or status quo knowledge byemphasizing interdisciplinary knowledge and to create questions aboutpower in schools in terms of who possesses it and why. Teacher mustcreate an environment where students can reclaim power and identity inthe schools, focused around the categories of race, gender, class, andethnicity (Giroux, 1988).

Teacher’s Role According to Critical Pedagogy

Shor asserts that teachers must struggle to find instructional practices thatencourage rather than discourage students from thinking of themselves ascritical agents shaping their own education. He asserts that teachers muststruggle to find instructional practices that encourage rather thandiscourage students from thinking of themselves as critical agents shapingtheir own education.

In addition, teachers need to establish classrooms where students areable to discern the dominant culture’s codes and signifiers and use themto establish a place in society (Freire & Macedo, 1987). Teachers mustconstantly focus on including a language of possibility, which Macedoargues both empowers students to make sense of their everyday lives andto gain the tools for mobility that are valued in the dominant culture.

Aronowitz (1993, 2001) issues a challenge to teachers who believe that theworld can and should be transformed. Teachers have an obligation to analyzeand critique the educational grounding of the past and to discard those ideasthat do not benefit and support their students (Aronowitz & DiFazio, 1994).

According to McLaren (2003), critical pedagogy compels teachers toaddress ideological pedagogical questions that inform their teaching, such as,“How have certain teaching practices become so ordinary in school settingsthat (we) accept them as normal, unproblematic, and expected? How oftendo we question such practices as tracking, ability grouping, competitivegrading, and the use of rewards and punishment as control devices? To whatextent do our pedagogical practices serve to empower or disempower thestudents? How often are we the moral gatekeepers of the state?” (p. 82).

Giroux explains how critical pedagogy challenges teachers to becomeagents of transformation instead of technicians following orders, whoengage in reforming the entire schooling system to empower children toview the world critically and to become agents of change (Giroux, 1988).

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In the same content, Hooks reminds us that critical pedagogy demandsteachers teach in a manner that works to transform consciousness andcreates the atmosphere of open expression that is the mark of anemancipatory education (Hooks, 1991, 1994).

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The principal aim of this exploratory case study is to describe thepractices of a high school biology teacher who has been able to create aclassroom environment where her Ells not only thrive academically butalso contribute to the development of a learning community in herclassroom and the school. This article describes how her knowledge,understanding, and instruction contribute to critical pedagogy practice.

Critical pedagogy focuses on reconfiguring the traditional student–teacherrelationship where the teacher is the leading agent, the one who knows, andthe students are the receivers of the teacher’s knowledge, also known as the“banking concept of education.” Instead, critical pedagogy reconfigures thetraditional classroom, which is re-envisioned as a site where new knowledgeis developed through the experiences of students and teachers alike andproduced through constructive dialogue (Giroux, 2006).

METHODOLOGY

School Site Context

The researcher collected data over a 4-month period at a high school in alarge urban school district. This year-round high school is located in SouthLos Angeles and is surrounded by industry, low-income businesses, highunemployment, and high crime rates. The high school’s academic yearbegins after the 4th of July holiday and ends June 21st. There are alwaysthree tracks, or groups of students, at the school (3,000 students).

Students

The two classes observed included ninth and tenth grade Latino students(32–37 students per class) who immigrated from El Salvador, Guatemala,Mexico, and Nicaragua during their primary education. According to theCalifornia’s language assessment (California Department of Education,2011), the students ranged from advanced Ells to pre-reclassified students(students who are ready to be reclassified into fully English proficient).


These classes also demonstrated the second highest scores in the sciencedepartment’s district assessments; 70 % of the students were assessedbasic or proficient compared to the average scores showing 50 % of thestudents scoring at basic/proficient.

Research Design

A case study methodology was selected for this study to investigate thephenomenon of how a Latina teacher shapes a critical pedagogy classroomenvironment where English learners achieve academically and create a criticalcommunity of learners. Yin (2003) explains that a case study is the preferredmethod when the researcher is trying to address descriptive (how) and/orexplanatory (why) questions and desires to produce a direct understanding ofthe people and events being studied. He also offers two main pointssupporting the researcher’s choice of methodology: (a) The strength of thecase study method is its ability to directly examine a real-life situation (Yin,2006, p. 111), and (b) this method facilitates direct observations and datacollection in natural settings, instead of using interpreted data. According toStake (1995), researchers “study a case when it itself is of very specialinterest” (p. xi). Through this case study, the researcher was able to look forthe details of the teacher’s actions and the sociocultural, class, emotional, andphysical environment she created in the classroom.

Participant Teacher Selection

The participant teacher selection process began a year before the studywhen the researcher was a math/science coach for the school site. As acoach, the researcher was able to collaborate with all the math and scienceteachers and become a community member. Teacher selection was basedon the following professional qualities:

1. Academic success—the teacher’s students demonstrated the secondhighest scores in the science department’s periodic assessments(including both English-only and English learner students).

2. An administrator’s recommendations based on his/her observations.3. The researcher’s classroom observations as a science coach.4. A willingness to collaborate.

Participant Teacher

Ms. Rodriguez (pseudonym) is a 32-year-old Latina who has beenteaching biology and integrated science classes to English learners for

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7 years in an urban school district. She received her B.A. in biology andteaching credential from a local university and recently completed herMaster’s degree with an emphasis in bilingual education and Englishlearners. During her first interview, before the observations, she describedher teaching philosophy and decision to become a teacher as follows:

I was born in Mexico and came to the US when I was 9 years old. When I was completingcollege, I knew I had to become a teacher to take care of students like me. I was verylucky because I had teachers who took care of me and made me very secure. I want … Ihope I do that too. I want my students to become scientists (R, Aug. 2009).

In this interview, she also discussed the role of SI in her classroom:

…I have been trained in sheltered instruction and I feel very comfortable integratinglanguage development and the science content. But I also always think of how to make thescience meaningful and try to connect it to their lives. I am not sure I always do this eventhough I do try (R, Aug. 2009).

Data Collection

The case study was constructed using multiple sources of data including(a) videotaped classroom observations in two different classes, (b) fieldnotes taken during 40 h of observations of lessons, and (c) the participantteacher’s informal and formal interviews focusing on specific observedevents (Fontana & Frey, 2000, p. 652). The multiple data sources ensuredtriangulation of findings through different converging lines of evidence(Yin, 2006).

Videotaped Classroom Observations

Data were collected over a period of 4 months from August throughDecember 2009 with data collection taking place one or two times a weekin two different 9th – 10th grade sheltered instruction biology classes (SHbiology) taught by the participant teacher (Ms. Rodriguez). Theresearcher was able to videotape and observe the SH biology classes formore than 20 h per class, with each videotape session running up to 1.5 hlong. The observation times were planned around the teacher’s plannedcurricula to showcase teacher-developed activities and practices.

Participant Teacher’s Interviews

Ms. Rodriguez was interviewed using an open-ended approach calledconversational interview (Fontana & Frey, 2000, p. 652). She was


interviewed at the beginning of the study, after each videotaped session,and at the end of the study. The conversational interviews were used as aninformal exchange of information about the videotaped events of thelesson or instructional session. Most often they focused on the teacher’sinterpretation of these events. The conversational interviews weredeveloped to offer maximum flexibility to pursue information in whateverdirection was needed—whether it was to focus on and analyze an activityor to discuss the background, or the “why,” behind the activity. Theconversational interviews, which were approximately 40 min long, wereaudiotaped and transcribed.

Data Analysis

The data analysis process reflected content analysis: “[C]ontent analysis isused to refer to any qualitative data reduction and sense-making effortthat takes a volume of qualitative material and attempts to identify coreconsistencies and meanings” (Patton, 2002, p. 453). To ensure thetriangulation of the findings through different converging lines ofevidence (Yin, 2006), the content analysis process was modified toinclude the following steps:

1. Before the study began, the researcher developed a framework fromthe theoretical perspectives presented earlier in the article. Theseperspectives grounded the study’s data analysis.

2. The researcher stipulated themes and patterns reflecting the theoreticalperspectives:

� Teaching that focuses on the students’ culture, socioeconomicstatus, familial connections, and identity—who they are (identi-ty/personal growth).

� Teaching that emphasizes academic skills and knowledge of thestudent as well as his or her development of critical thinking(academic/cognitive).

� Teaching that develops students’ critical understanding ofsociety, power, the inequality embedded in activities to makethe students aware of their role in society, their understanding ofinequality—who is in power and why—and their own personalpower to change their status or role.

3. The researcher analyzed the videotaped sessions every 2 weeks, withanalysis consisting of pattern matching the collected evidence againstthe initially stipulated themes and patterns (Yin, 2006, p. 118).

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4. The researcher reviewed the critical pedagogy events with theparticipant teacher and interviewed her about the background andpurpose of the activities and practices observed in the videotape.

Limitations

One of the major limitations in the study was the researcher’s role in theschool site. As a science coach, the researcher became a communitymember and developed relationships with all the science departmentteachers. However, this limitation might have been made negligible sincethe researcher never worked with the participant teacher, assisted her, norvisited her classroom before the study.

The other limitations reflect the use of a case study and are alsosignificant:

� The resulting data represents the efforts of one teacher, in one school,in one district, in one state—the results are not generalizable.

� There is too much data for easy analysis.� The data does not lend itself to numerical representation.� Sometimes, the results raise doubts about their “objectivity.� Many times the results are easy to dismiss, by those who do not like

the messages that they contain.

FINDINGS

Critical pedagogy theorists present critical pedagogy not as a homogenousset of ideas or instructional techniques, but rather, as a myriad ofheterogeneous principles and concepts (Darder et al., 2003; Giroux, 1988;McLaren, 2003; Wink, 2000). The very heterogeneous nature of the set ofideas is frequently identified as inherent to the meaning of the term. Noformula or homogeneous representation exists for the universal implemen-tation of any form of critical pedagogy. According to Darder et al. (2003), “itis precisely this distinguishing factor that constitutes its critical nature, andtherefore its most emancipatory and democratic function” (p. 10).

The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the practices of ahigh school biology teacher, who has been able to create a classroomenvironment where her English learners not only thrive academically butalso contribute to the development of a learning community in her classroomand the school. In this section, the researcher presents data from this casestudy showcasing events reflecting critical pedagogy themes and patterns.


Non-critical Pedagogy Episodes

There were a number of events observed that reflected the integration ofSI, such as the teaching of concepts through the use of games and hands-on labs or activities, test-taking sessions, test preparation, and vocabularydevelopment. The vocabulary development sessions consisted of astudent-led computer-centered activity, where the students were provideda list of terms using a Frayer model graphic organizer to find andunderstand definitions. All these events reflected SI but not criticalpedagogy and were not considered further in this study.

Theme: Critical Pedagogy Event Reflecting Identity/Personal Growthand Academic/Cognitive Development

This critical pedagogy event was centered on a genetics/DNA unitdeveloped by Ms. Rodriguez. She described it as follows:

I tried to create a rich, meaningful, cultural and standards-based genetics unit where thestudents had to research their families’ medical background, research medicalconditions, including the chemical and biological background, and develop anutritional/behavioral plan for themselves. They need to know who they are physicallyand genetically.(R, Nov. 2009).

This event reflected two critical pedagogy themes: (a) identity/personalgrowth and (b) academic/cognitive. Each theme was observed as it wasenacted through the videotaping, after which the themes were furtherelaborated upon through the conversational interviews following thevideotaped event. The process followed this sequence as shown in thefollowing vignette:

(Classroom transcript, Nov. 2009)At the beginning of the unit, the teacher asked the students to create a health family treeand she modeled how to do it by using her own family background as follows:Ms. R: Please listen, I am going to show you what I mean by a health family tree.The students are still talking.Ms. R: Pleaseeeee? Ok, watch the screen (inaudible).Student talk lulls.Ms. R: Here I am (drawing a circle in the middle of the overhead transparency)—How ismy health? Well, I am sorry to say that I have high blood pressure. Here is my mother—she also has high blood pressure and arthritis. Here is my dad—he passed away 5 yearsago and he died of a heart attack. Now, here is my mother’s family—one brother and twosisters (drawing three circles next to the mother). This uncle (pointing to the circle) is analcoholic. Raul, (facing the class) what is an alcoholic?S1: A person who drinks too much until they’re sick?

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Ms. R: Thank you. Here is my aunt who died in her 40s—she just could not stop drinking.(This is) very sad for her and all of us (pausing for a few minutes). Here is mygrandmother—my father’s mother. She was very strong and lasted until she was 96—verystrong woman. Here is my mother’s father—I am still trying to find out why he died. Hiswife, my grandmother, died after she gave birth to my aunt. So there, this is a healthfamily tree.

(Classroom transcript, Nov. 2009)This question-answer session took place at the end of the genetic unit. At the beginning ofthe class, before the bell rang, the researcher asked a group of four students somequestions:Researcher: Could I ask you what you thought of the genetics unit you justcompleted? Have you done schoolwork like this before? What did you think aboutthe unit?S1: You know most of the time my science classes have been a little boring but when westarted this section—I think for the first time I was thinking about how maybe science hassomething to do with me and my life.S2: When Ms. Rodriguez asked us to do the family tree to find out about ourhistory, I really found out some things about my family—things like having highblood pressure—my mother was talking medication and I did not know about it. Myfamily and I talked about these things for the first time. I think they were surprise Iwas learning about it.S3: When I asked my mother about the medical problems, she explained how myfather almost had diabetes—the doctor told him—and that is why he was trying tolose weight.S1: Ms. Rodriguez was trying to have us think about us—who we are and where wecome from to try to change it or make it better—we now think and talk about ourbackgrounds.S3: The things we did and talked about made me think about how and what I can do tomake sure I do not have medical problems later on.

Identity/Personal Growth. Here, the teacher has attempted to create a unit ofinstruction where “the students see themselves as human beings that canrecognize who they are and where they came from and to be able to modify alifestyle if needed” (R, Nov. 2009). This response by Ms. Rodriguez isinterpreted to signify the importance of connecting academic content to herstudent’s own personal life experiences to support the students to get to knowthemselves. As a critical pedagogue, this teacher has developed a classroomenvironment where students become knowledgeable and appreciative oftheir histories and experiences and the culture of their everyday environ-ments (Freire & Macedo, 1987).

Academic/Cognitive. The other critical pedagogy theme that emerged wasmade evident through Ms. Rodriguez’s statements about the academic andcognitive achievement of her students. During the conversational interview,


the researcher noted to Ms. Rodriguez that the genetics and DNA unitconsisted of lectures, difficult text readings, and computer research askingthe students to research, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information.

(Classroom transcript, Nov. 2009)As part of the unit, the students completed a computer research project in which they hadto explain/discuss a medical issue (hypertension, diabetes, alcoholism, mood disorders).This project asked team of students to explain the issue using biological/molecular termsand create a content-based presentation using multimedia.S1: Hello everyone. We were assigned diabetes as our medical disease.(Slide 1 with pictures) As you can see, diabetes is a disease that causes a person who have toomuch sugar in their blood or hyperglycemia because their level of insulin is too low.(Slide 2 with pictures) Insulin from the pancreas controls the breakdown of sugar in the blood.S2: (Slide 3 with pictures) Diabetes can cause long-term damage and failure of someorgans like the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels.(Slide 4 with pictures) Beta cells (beta-cells, β-cells) are a type of cell in the pancreas located inthe so-called islets of Langerhans. The work of a beta cell is to make and store insulin.S3: (Slide 5 with pictures) Several forms of diabetes are caused by genetic defects in β-cell function. The most common genetic defect is the mutations on chromosome 12. Asecond genetic defect is the mutations in the glucokinase gene on chromosome 7p.(Slide 6 with video) Video showing the mutations in β-cell function.S4: (Slide 7 with pictures) Studies show that people who can inherit diabetes can prevent it by:maintaining an average body weight and physical activity for 30 min per day 5 days a week).(Slide 8) Video showing how to prevent diabetes.

This students’ presentation demonstrates that Ms. Rodriguez has beenable to establish a classroom where her students engage in academic/cognitive practices. As a critical pedagogue, she was able to constructcurricula that drew upon the cultural resources that students bring withthem to the school—their languages, their histories, their experiences, andtheir voices (Shor, 1992). Shor (1992) asserts that teachers must struggleto find instructional practices that encourage rather than discouragestudents from thinking of themselves as critical agents shaping their owneducation. When students are able to think of themselves as suchempowered agents, then they (i.e. students and teachers) can develop theircapacities as democratic agents and social critics.

Theme: Critical Pedagogy Event Reflecting Critical Understandingof Society, Power, Inequality, and Change

Another event showcased a repeating practice Ms. Rodriguez called“personal issues.” She described it like this:

Life happens for all the kids and sometimes we, adults, have to make time todiscuss what is going on, to give students a different perspective, or a different point

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of view. Sometimes I do this to have them talk about issues, and to make sense ofthem (R, 2009)

For this event, Ms. Rodriguez asked the students to sit in a large circle.A student leader asked for topics or issues from the whole class and wrotethem on a large pad. Many times the students talked about and brought uppersonal issues, but sometimes, she took this opportunity to discussresponsibility, community, self-identity, racism, and/or violence in thecommunity. According to the teacher, “These are all health/biology topicsthat are important in my classroom community.”

This critical pedagogy event reflected the theme related to the criticalunderstanding of society, power, inequality, and students’ own personalpower to change their status or role. Evidence of this theme was observedin the following two excerpts, one that took place in August (2009) andanother that was transcribed in November (2009):

(Classroom transcript, Aug. 2009)Ms. R: Today, I would like to discuss “testing” (using her fingers to signal quotationmarks). As you know our first periodic assessment is coming up.S1: And you want us to do well in the test?Ms. R: Yes, I do, but why do you think so?S1: Silently shruggs his shoulders.Ms R: Administrators and teachers take a look at your test scores and they makejudgments—Oh, look this is a very smart class or look, this class is remedial. You areplaced many times because of tests and the scores. Think of the CSTs you take every year.S2: Do you think the test is difficult?Ms. R: Whether the test is difficult or not is not important—what is important is that youdo the very best you can. You are all very intelligent and you work very hard so you cando well.

(Classroom transcript, Nov. 2009)This transcript came from one of the “personal issues” class periods. The researcher ledthis question and answer session.Researcher: In August, I had the opportunity to videotape one of these sessions focusingon testing. Ms. Rodriguez was discussing the importance of test scores. I’m wondering ifwe could talk about tests and test scores some more?S1 (raising hand): Might be better if you ask us how many of us are attending Saturdayschool to do CST (California Standards Test) or CAHSEE (California High School ExitExam).Researcher: How many students are attending Saturday school?29 out of 32 students raise hands.Researcher: Why are you attending these classes?S2: We do realize that these test scores make a difference and counselors take a look allthe time—when you ask for a course—I asked for an AP environmental science class fornext year and the counselor told me that she needed to wait for my CST biology scores tosee if I could enroll in the class.


S3: Some of us are also attending after-school P-SAT classes now to prepare to take theSAT in the 11th and 12th grade. We’ll take the test at the end of this month.Researcher: Who are taking those courses?19 out of 32 students raise hands.S4: We need to begin early—if we can prepare for this test and do well, we can get intocollege. The more we can prepare, the better we will do.

In the August event, Ms. Rodriguez modeled Freire’s (1970) “problem-posing education,”where, through a dialogue between teachers and students,the students can begin to “develop their power to perceive critically the waythey exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves”(Freire, p. 64). This event placed the students in a situation where they werechallenged to become aware of their roles in society, about theirunderstanding of inequality—who is in power and why—and their ownpersonal power to change their statuses or roles. Later, in November, thestudents express their awareness of the importance of testing and test scoresby preparing for these tests.

In this “personal issues” event, Ms. Rodriguez is able to demonstratecritical pedagogy as a political practice (Aronowitz & DiFazio, 1994).Aronowitz tells us that critical pedagogy teachers have an obligation toanalyze and critique the education grounding of the past and to discardthose ideas that do not benefit and support the students (Aronowitz &DiFazio, 1994).

Theme: Critical Pedagogy Event Reflecting Identity/Personal Growth,Academic/Cognitive Development, and Critical Understanding of Society,Power, Inequality, and Change

This event reflected the three critical pedagogy themes including identity/personal growth, academic/cognitive, and critical understanding of society,power, inequality, and students’ own personal power to change their statusesor roles. This event was embedded in an ethnobotany unit designed to (a)have the students recognize the importance of their own traditional culturalknowledge, (b) recognize that pharmaceutical medications are valued andrespected more than the home remedies and challenge why they are notvalued, (c) demonstrate to students the connection between traditionalcultural knowledge and Western science, (d) address physiology/humandisease standards, and (e) integrate chemistry standards (R, Oct. 2009). Thisunit emphasized the students’ traditional medicinal plants and herbs (i.e.manzanilla/chamomile, chilies, cinnamon, and jamaica/hibiscus flowers),their biochemical properties, and the similarities and differences between thepharmaceutical medicines and the natural osteopathic medicines. During the

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unit, the students shared their families’ cultural medical knowledge and thenlearned about the scientific information behind each plant and herb. This unitwas informed by the work of Dr. Elroy Rodriguez (Cornell University,Zoopharmacognosy).

This event reflected the identity/personal growth theme by having thestudents focus on their own traditional cultural knowledge and recognize theconnection between their own traditional cultural knowledge and westernscience. Evidence of this theme is observed in the following excerpt.

(Classroom transcript, Oct. 2009)This activity took place 3 days after the beginning of the unit. The students were asked tobring a home remedy (plant, herb, condiment) to present in class and to create a posterpresenting the following: name of home remedy; how the families use this remedy; andthe commercial medication that parallels the remedy.S1: This is my poster showing chamomile. My family comes fromMexico and every time I ormy brothers have a headache or stomachache, my mother makes chamomile tea—té demanzanilla—and our headaches or stomachaches go away. In my research for the chemicalsthat make up chamomile, I found that this plant has chemicals that are use to make drugs thatcan decrease muscle spasms, reduce anxiety attacks and swelling. I even found some scientificstudies showing how effective the plant can be somemedical problems. Here is a picture of thechemical formula (pointing to molecular drawing).S2: My poster shows the family remedy my grandmother has been using for many years,garlic. According to my grandmother who comes from El Salvador, whenever someone inher family had a cut or infection, they would cut garlic cloves and cover the cut. MyInternet research showed that garlic has a chemical called Allicin (pointing to moleculardrawing) that can kill bacteria. A number of medical companies use Allicin to preventinfections.

(Classroom transcript, Oct. 2009)This is a discussion with the students following the presentations. Researcher approacheda group of students that were cleaning up before the bell rang.Researcher: Can you tell me something about this activity?S1: I liked it that we learned something about our own medicines—things we use at home.Most of the time, we think that we need to buy things from the pharmacy.S2: The best thing for me that we learned about how important the plants and homemedicines can be—plants that our parents and grandparents having been using for a longtime. There are times I don’t think they work.S3: When you learn about home medicines or things our parents use and see howimportant they are. It makes me feel proud about them. Sometimes you do not want to talkabout what your family uses because you think that others will put it down.S1: We have respect for plants and remedios that our parents have that we did not knowabout.

Identity/Personal Growth. In this event, Ms. Rodriguez addressed thestudents’ authentic lived histories by constructing curricula that draw


upon the cultural resources that students bring with them to the school—their languages, their histories, their cultural backgrounds, their experi-ences, and their voices (Giroux, 1988). Giroux explains how criticalpedagogy challenges teachers to become agents of transformation insteadof technicians following orders who engage in reforming the entireschooling system to empower children to view the world critically and tobecome agents of change (Giroux, 1988).

Critical Understanding of Society, Power, Inequality, and Change.Acting as an agent of transformation in this unit of instruction, Ms.Rodriguez was also able to have the students think about the differencebetween pharmaceutical medications and home remedies, why one isselected over the other, as well as how and why pharmaceutical companiesdevelop medications, as shown in the following classroom transcripts.

(Classroom transcript, Oct. 2009)Ms. R: So, we having talking about and you have been researching the different medicines.Now I want you to think whenever you are sick, with a cold or cough or fever, whichmedication do you take—your home remedy or a medication from a company?S1: We usually go buy something from the store.S2: We do too.Ms. R: Why do we believe that medicines from companies are better than our own remedies?S3: If we used our medicines from home—we would not buy the others and they wouldnot make money.S2: We have been told that the medicines we buy are better—all the commercials.Ms. R: So “someone” or television told you—that the pharmaceutical medications arebetter—so we believe it? Why?S4: They do test their medications, no?Ms. R: Do you think the companies tested our home remedies to see if they are effective?Why not?

(Classroom transcript, Oct. 2009)At the end of the unit, the students completed a computer research activity focusing on themanufacturing of medicines and the pharmaceutical companies This class discussion tookplace after the students completed their research.Ms. Rodriguez: What did you find out about medication manufacturing?S1: Drug companies are just like other companies that need to make money. They don’tseem to do it because they want to help people.S2: I read that they need to make money because they need to pay the people whoinvested in them.S3: These companies also have to spend money to sell the drugs—like the commercialswe see on television.S2: The companies also spend a lot of money on the research and approval of the drugs.S4: The companies’ decisions to make a drug really depends on how much money theywill make nor not. They don’t always think about what medicines are needed the most.

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S5: There was a federal government article about how the larger drug companies are moreinterested in making medications for chronic illnesses that develops slowly and lasts along time instead of illnesses start very quickly and only lasts a short time. It seems to beone way that companies can make money.S1: Sometimes we want to think that medicine is to better people’s lives not to makemoney but I guess that’s not always the reality.

Here, the teacher was able to challenge the students to criticallyunderstand society and who does or does not possess power by havingthem think about the relationship between pharmaceutical medicationsand home remedies through posing specific questions: How are theysimilar or different? Why are the pharmaceutical medications valued orrespected more than the home remedies? Ms. Rodriguez created anenvironment where the teacher and students were able to address theabove-mentioned “emancipatory” questions challenging traditional beliefsand the societal status quo (McLaren, 2006).

Academic/Cognitive. In this event, the academic/cognitive developmenttheme is reflected in the teacher’s integration of critical literacy (Freire &Macedo, 1987) to support the conceptual understanding of the contentand at the same time to challenge the content. The following excerptprovides evidence of and reasoning behind this integration:

(Interview transcript, Oct. 2009)Researcher: I noticed that this unit seems to include a great amount of literacy—difficultreading and writing. I also noticed that you walk the students through this process. Canyou tell me about this?Ms. R: In order for my students to learn science, I need to integrate literacy developmentin all science teaching and learning—this means that my students have to read and writescience. However, reading and writing does not mean just decoding and answeringquestions. For me, literacy means that my students read critically—to understand what theauthors or scientists mean—maybe even the meaning behind the article or paragraphs? Iwant them to ask, what is the reason behind the statement?Researcher: Why is this important?Ms. R: Too many times—I think—we read and we believe everything. I think we need tochallenge everything we read. I think my students need to critique what they read and Ineed to teach them the process of how to challenge those things we read, and we need toanalyze them.

Here, the teacher refers to what Freire & Macedo (1987) call “criticalliteracy”—literacy that allows readers to critique and analyze theinformation that arises from a text with complexity. When teachers usethis cognitive approach to literacy development, they allow their studentsto engage and interact with the outside, objective world with a critical


lens. Students must read the word and challenge the word before they canread or understand the world around them (Freire & Macedo, 1987).

DISCUSSION

The evidence gathered throughout this case study demonstrates how Ms.Rodriguez has been able to establish a classroom environment anddevelop curricula reflecting the themes that evolved from the criticalpedagogy theoretical perspectives: (a) identity/personal growth, (b)academic/cognitive development, and (c) critical understanding ofsociety, power, inequality, and students’ own personal power to changetheir statuses or roles. These themes were identified in different eventsduring the genetic unit, ethnobotany unit, and personal issues activity. Asa science educator and SI educator, the teacher in this case study hasrealized that for her students to be able to succeed academically, and inlife, she needs to center her instruction and curricula on her students’personal lives, academic needs, and an awareness of their surroundingcommunity.

Throughout the classroom transcripts and interview examples, theresearcher was able to present evidence of a critical pedagogue who hasbeen able to embed the three main critical pedagogy themes in herteaching. Ms. Rodriguez was able to embed the identity/personal growththeme focusing on the students’ cultures, socioeconomic status, familialconnections, and identity by creating curricula that (a) challenged studentsto get to know themselves to improve their lives and (b) was based uponthe cultural resources that students brought with them to the school—theirlanguages, their histories, their cultural backgrounds, their experiences,and their voices. She also focused on students’ personal issues orstudents’ concerns that affect them as people.

She was able to develop the academic/cognitive theme, emphasizingthe student’s academic skills and knowledge, by never watering down thescience content or material her students have to learn. She ensures thatshe uses the materials all students, including English-only, have to use,and supports her English learners using SI strategies and techniques tounderstand the concepts. She has also been able to integrate criticalliteracy (Freire & Macedo, 1987) in her teaching and learning to supportthe conceptual understanding of the content as well as challenge thecontent.

She has also addressed the theme of critical understanding of society,power, inequality, and students’ own personal power to change their

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statuses or roles by helping the students understand how powerful theyare by having honest conversations with them about testing and the powerof the test scores as well as how society values pharmaceuticalmedications over home remedies. She was able to have students beginto question and challenge how and why they buy medicines instead ofrelying on their own home remedies.

CONCLUSIONS

Critical pedagogy theorists present critical pedagogy not as a homogenousset of ideas or instructional techniques, but as a myriad of heterogeneousprinciples and concepts (Darder et al., 2003; Giroux, 1988; McLaren,2003; Wink, 2000). The very heterogeneous nature of the set of ideas isfrequently identified as inherent to the meaning of the term. No formulaor homogeneous representation exists for the universal implementation ofany form of critical pedagogy. According to Darder et al. (2003), “it isprecisely this distinguishing factor that constitutes its critical nature, andtherefore its most emancipatory and democratic function” (p. 10).

Critical pedagogy cannot be described as a set of instructionalstrategies or techniques; rather, it is the classroom environment that iscreated by the teacher and includes the critical pedagogy practices thatensure students can develop their identity, development their academicskills and cognition, and begin to understand their roles and places insociety. In this case study, Ms. Rodriguez was able to demonstrate howshe created a classroom where her students learned the science contentand also developed as critical human beings. Teachers who embracecritical pedagogy understand and attempt to address the effects of race,class, and gender in their own activist stance as well as in their classroomcontent and methods. They attempt to:

� Break down the existing/status quo knowledge.� Create questions about power in schools—who possesses power and

why.� Challenge the teacher and students to reclaim power and identity in the

schools, shaped around the categories of race, gender, class, and ethnicity.� Focus curriculum knowledge on peoples’ authentic lived histories.� Authenticate teachers’ and students’ own language connected to

particular cultural practices.

For Ms. Rodriguez, teaching is not simply an objective presentation ofsubject matter knowledge; rather, it is a political arena where the teacher


makes content comprehensible and meaningful and simultaneously placesthe students in a role to challenge not only the content but also theproducers of that knowledge and their power.

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supporting english language learners in the science classroom through critical pedagogy

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