Scaffolding dialogue with marginalised students in the middle years

Abstract

The ability to "command language, evidence and argument" (Alexander, 2020, p. 197) for personal, social, and environmental good is a goal which resonates for all school students in the 21 't century. In the field of science, successful argumentation requires students to draw on and to express disciplinary knowledge in authoritative ways. Yet the command of scientific knowledge and language remains elusive for many students. In Australia, a 'long tail' (Ainley et al., 2022) of students are not meeting minimum standards in education, including students from Indigenous, geographically remote, and/or low socio-economic backgrounds, and students learning English as an additional language (EAL), particularly those from refugee backgrounds (ACARA, 2021; Lamb et al., 2020). For these students, it is all the more important that we develop understandings of how we can use classroom dialogue in the co-construction of scientific knowledge, in ways that both affirm and build agency in the wider world.