Webinar Series
Supporting Multilingual Students’ Scientific Sensemaking Through Translanguaging
Date+Time
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The MƒA Equity Webinars Series invites nationally recognized educators to share ideas that support equity within STEM. Following an interactive presentation by the speaker, Master Teachers have the opportunity to discuss how these ideas might be applied in their own school environments in small groups. Teachers from MƒA, other Master Teacher programs, and people interested in learning more about MƒA are invited to attend.
What counts as language, and how is a language used for scientific sensemaking? Narrow views of language and science practices have long perpetuated inequities in science education for multilingual students. In this talk, Dr. González-Howard discusses developing new, more expansive understandings and pedagogies for supporting multilingual learners. She adopts a translanguaging lens to unpack how language and languaging are central to scientific sensemaking via science practices. She illustrates these ideas with classroom examples and shares resources to help teachers reflect upon and update their instructional practices.
Dr. Maria González-Howard is an Assistant Professor in STEM Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research explores the intersections of teaching and learning science with multilingualism. Specifically, she focuses on supporting multilingual students' engagement in science practices through translanguaging. Before receiving her doctorate from Boston College, she was a middle school science teacher in mainstream and sheltered English instruction classrooms in Texas and Massachusetts.