Nielsen, Wendy: “Assessing Science Courses in Rural BC: A Cultural Border-Crossing Metaphor”



In Wendy’s article, a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research was conducted to closely examine why students in small rural high schools in BC face challenges in accessing science and math courses. The study reveals four factors which are categorized as staffing, qualified specialized teacher, the teacher-student relationship, and the school culture. Furthermore, the study conceptualizes the access issues as cultural differences among teachers, students, schools, curriculum, and the local community. It argues the importance of culturally relevant teaching in supporting students’ journey to navigate the “border crossing”. It is very true that each student is different and the “one-size fit all” teaching method will not work here.

As educators, I think it is very important to constantly remind ourselves to reexamine our assumptions to facilitate teaching as lived experience. As Wendy states (p.185), “Teachers need to be better sensitized to the importance of building relationships with students that honour the cultural heritage and prior knowledge that students bring to school”. Advancement in technologies could also make some positive contributions to help expand access to the science courses.

Reflecting from this article, I wonder what strategies could be adopted in our teaching methods to be more culturally relevant?

Focus Questions:
• Why students in small rural high school in BC experience barriers in accessing science courses?
• How teacher and schools facilitate students’ access to senior science and math courses in those affected schools?

World View:
High school students in small rural areas in BC are experiencing barriers to access science and math courses.

Philosophy:
• Students acquire knowledge through the formal curriculum with the presence of unique school culture including subculture of school science

Theory:
• “A new theory of learning needs to encompass these situational and cultural factors while attending to individual cognitive development”

Principles:
• The practice of culturally relevant teaching help to mediate negotiating of access between students and school science

Concepts:
• Culture of school science, school culture, culturally relevant teaching, collateral learning, teachers, schools, community

Events and/or Objects:
• Perspectives of 11 principals, 28 teachers, and 45 students from 12 small rural schools in BC with their student population ranging from about 25 to 600 students

Records:
• Data analysis on provincial and school district documents
• Questionnaire surveys
• 14 in-person interviews

Constructs:
• cultural barriers

Transportations:
• A combination of both quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Tables, statistics, interpretive qualitative research methods with categorizing, coding and summary

Knowledge Claims:
• The following factors are identified as barriers which impact students’ access to science courses in small rural high school in BC:
Staffing in general with high turnover rate
Qualified specialist teacher
Teacher-student relationships
The local culture of the school
• Teachers play an important role in facilitate accessing to science courses via building trusting relationship with students and their specialized knowledge in the subject area

Value Claims:
• Cultural differences  among students, teachers, schools, local communities create a cultural barrier for high schools students in small rural areas in BC to access science and math courses
• Calling for changes in the educational system (teacher, school, curriculum) to teach as lived experience (culturally relevant teaching)
• Possibilities in using technology to expand students’ access to science courses in those affected areas

Comments

  1. Crystal Cheng22 January 2018 at 11:07

    Hi Hui，
    Thank you for your reflection about the reading. As for your question" what strategies could be adopted in our teaching methods to be more culturally relevant?" I am considering about if a teacher wants to be more culturally relevant in teaching progress, he or she should have a deep understanding about the culture itself, then think up something could add cultural elements in the teaching methods, such as letting students do some background readings, organizing some activities in the class related to culture, and planning some field trips in the city.
    Crystal

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  2. Kieran22 January 2018 at 14:20

    Hey Hui,
    Thank you for the summary of your reading. There seems to be some parallels with the Aoki reading from last week relating to the challenges of being engaged in teaching as a lived experience; in this case, dealing with culturally relevant teaching.
    One of the issues I can identify is the contrast between the need for teachers to build relationship with students and the high turnover rate in staffing. Building relationships with students takes engagement over time and this also necessitates the development of an understanding of the backgrounds and cultures where the students come from. I could see how this could be a problem for students too when teacher turnover means that they might not be as invested in building relationships with teachers if they think that they are only sticking around for a semester or two.
    From my understanding, the teacher shortage in BC isn’t so much about the shortage of teachers, but more to do with the reluctance of sufficient numbers of teachers to live in rural areas i.e. it’s a teacher distribution problem. I guess this is a problem in many countries; I know it’s a big issue in China for example.

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