Calabrese Barton, Tan, and Rivet provide valuable insights on supporting girls (and young people generally) as they negotiate the practices of formal science learning, establish learning identities, and engage with science. Analysis of rich ethnographic data shows how middle school girls created hybrid spaces between school and home that enabled them to draw on funds of knowledge in order to participate fully in school science.
In this case study, Calabrese Barton and Yang describe how a young person’s strong interest in science (specifically reptiles) outside of school went unrecognized by his school teachers and his family as an aptitude for science. The authors describe how the prevailing view of science, framed in the context of the culture of power, can narrow learners’ perceived opportunities to pursue academic or professional pathways in science.