Understanding Interactions in Multilingual Science Classrooms through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT): What D
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Understanding Interactions in Multilingual Science Classrooms through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT): What Do Contradictions Tell Us? Sara Salloum 1
& Saouma
BouJaoude 2
Received: 20 November 2019 / Accepted: 6 July 2020/ # Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan 2020
Abstract Interactions in multilingual science classrooms involve local cognitive and sociocultural dimensions along with global contextual aspects such as language-in-education policies. The intersection of these has implications for providing quality science education and supporting diverse students. This study investigates interactions in Lebanese multilingual science classrooms by using an integrative framework to analyze dialogicity of local classroom practices, or the extent to which students’ ideas are acknowledged and built upon for conceptual learning. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is then used to depict local practices within the larger global contextual aspects. Data were collected through instrumental case studies of three middle school science teachers in schools of different socioeconomic levels. Data sources included: (a) videotaped science lessons, (b) teacher and school leader interviews, and (c) student group interviews. Data were then arranged into an activity system for each teacher’s classroom. Each activity system showed how local interactions and practices were situated within contextual aspects and the emergent contradictions in each. We discuss what contradictions tell us about interactions in Lebanese multilingual science classrooms and how these can inform professional development in multilingual science education. Keywords CHAT . Activity theory . Dialogism . Professional development . Multilingual
science education
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-02010114-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Sara Salloum [email protected] Saouma BouJaoude [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
S. Salloum, S. BouJaoude
Introduction A sociocultural perspective stresses classroom interactions as shaping the social and academic life of classrooms (Aguiar, Mortimer & Scott, 2010). Within multilingual classrooms, as in the case of Lebanon and several Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and EU countries, teacher talk and ways different languages (e.g., home, international, and dominant) are deployed can be especially important for supporting conceptual and meaningful science learning (e.g., García & Lin, 2016; Jakobson & Axelsson, 2017; Lee & Buxton, 2013; Salloum & BouJaoude, 2019a, 2019b;). The Lebanese educational system is trilingual based on a language-in-education policy that requires that Arabic and English or French be introduced in the first grade and that mathematics and science be taught in the foreign language (English or French). A persistent concern in such multilingual settings is the disparity of students’ science performance
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