Engaging in identity work through engineering practices in elementary classrooms

This article examines the emergence of identity work in engineering among elementary school students. Engineering has only recently been added to state and national standards in the United States. The purpose of the study was to examine ways that engaging in engineering practices transforms students’ views of engineering and themselves. Video of two teachers, each teaching one engineering unit, was analyzed. Across the lessons of these engineering units (designing a parachute and designing a mortar mixture for a stone wall), a sociolinguistic perspective was taken to show how engagement in engineering provides opportunities for identity work among the students and teachers. Analyses of the classroom discourse identified the epistemological and ontological constructions of identity, uses of intertextuality and chronotopes to build identity over time, and ways that collective understandings supported student take-up of an engineering identity. Because engineering is a new discipline in most classrooms, it provides a unique opportunity to examine how disciplinary affinity can be developed through purposeful activity and metadiscourse about participation.

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Work Title Engaging in identity work through engineering practices in elementary classrooms
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Gregory J. Kelly
  2. Christine M. Cunningham
  3. Amy Ricketts
License CC0 1.0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Linguistics and Education
Publication Date May 20, 2017
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.05.003
Deposited June 13, 2021

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added Creator Gregory Kelly
  • Added Creator Christine Cunningham
  • Added Creator Amy Ricketts
  • Added Kelly et al Engineering identity L&E 2017.pdf
  • Updated License Show Changes
    License
    • http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated
  • Updated Publisher, Publisher Identifier (DOI), Related URLs, and 1 more Show Changes
    Publisher
    • Linguistics and Education
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • 10.1016/j.linged.2017.05.003
    • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.05.003
    Related URLs
    • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.05.003
    Publication Date
    • 2017
    • 2017-05-20
  • Renamed Creator Gregory J. Kelly Show Changes
    • Gregory Kelly
    • Gregory J. Kelly
  • Renamed Creator Christine M. Cunningham Show Changes
    • Christine Cunningham
    • Christine M. Cunningham