Viewing classrooms as cultural contexts for fostering scientific literacy

This article explores the sociocultural dynamics within an urban fifth grade science classroom in which we were teacher-researchers. We draw fine-grained portraits of our attempts to emulate the ideals of the collective culture of science within the classroom, and how students sought to reframe those practices. We argue that it is useful to think about students' approach to and deviations from the norms of scientific practices in terms of their contextual resources, interactive norms, and school-based cultural perspectives, rather than simply in terms of their cognitive development level.