Collaborative Research: Latinx Families' Talk about Science in Stories with Young Children

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is funded by the EDU Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. It responds to continuing concerns about differences in STEM pathways that begin to emerge in the early childhood years. The overarching goal of the project is to identify cultural strengths that support science learning opportunities in families with young children. Building on a growing interest in the ways stories can promote early engagement in and understanding of science, this project will investigate the role of oral and written stories as culturally relevant and potentially powerful tools for making scientific ideas and inquiry practices meaningful and accessible for young children. Findings will reveal ways that family storytelling practices can provide accessible entry points for children's early science learning, and recommend methods that parents and educators can use to foster learning about scientific practices that can, in turn, increase interest and participation in science education and fields. The project will advance knowledge on the socio-cultural and familial experience of children that can contribute to their early science learning and skills. The project team will examine the oral story and reading practices of 330 families with 3- to 5-year-old children recruited from three geographic locations in the United States: New York, Chicago, and San Jose. Combining interviews and observations, the project team will investigate: (1) how conversations about science and nature occur in children's daily lives, and (2) whether and to what extent narrative and expository books, family personal narratives, and riddles engender family conversations about scientific ideas and science practices. Across- and within-site comparisons will allow the project team to consider the immediate ecology and broader factors that shape families' science-related views and practices. Although developmental science has long acknowledged that early learning is culturally situated, most research on early STEM is still informed by mainstream experiences that largely exclude the lived experiences of children from groups underrepresented in STEM. The proposed work will advance understanding of stories as cultural resources to support early science engagement and learning among children and inform the development of high quality, equitable informal and formal science educational opportunities for young children. 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.