Doctoral Dissertation Research: Participatory Research in K-12 Science Classrooms

This doctoral dissertation research studies how students actively participate with teachers and other adults in shaping science education and curriculum in K-12 school settings. The investigators specifically test the impacts of student knowledge and lived social experience on a future-oriented science curriculum. The research expands our understandings of the important role of students and children in developing science curriculum that is relevant to student experience and that expands their capacity to make future impact. In addition to providing scientific training for a graduate student in anthropology and interdisciplinary research in education, the broader impacts of this research also involve a participatory methodology that will introduce K-12 students to the methods of social science data collection. The results will inform the development of an enrichment program on science education and will be disseminated through a digital archive of findings developed by students. In order to understand the impacts of lived experiences of children and students on their education, investigators utilize multiple qualitative and spatial methods including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, photography, drawing, and landscape mapping. K-12 students at various grade levels will be involved closely in data collection using a participatory methodology that will include and train students in the methods of anthropological data collection. The research offers clear contributions to the anthropology of childhood and education through an innovative approach that draws on the expertise and capacities of students in developing and refining a future-oriented scientific education. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.