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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION STRUGGLES OF AGENCY AND STRUCTURE AS CULTURAL WORLDS COLLIDE AS URBAN AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTH LEARN PHYSICS BY ROWHEA ELMESKY A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2001 The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Rowhea Elmesky defended on November 16, 2001 __________________________ Nancy T. Davis Professor, Directing Dissertation __________________________ Paul Cottle Committee Member ___________________________ George Dawson Committee Member ___________________________ David Van Winkle Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________________ David Foulk, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Dedicated to: My husband, Ahmed for being a super-father and husband; My mother and father for the countless sacrifices they made to support me; My son, Hadi, for all the days he called for me, and I wasn’t there to answer; And to Dr. Ken Tobin, who provided this research opportunity and remained a solid support from the start to the finish. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. REC-0107022. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this dissertation are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. All the praises and thanks are due to Allah, the Lord of all that exists (Quran, 1:1). There were many times during my journey to become a Ph.D. that I wondered--I wondered if I could stand being awake one more hour, if I could write just one more paragraph or if I could stay another twelve hours away from my family. It was without a doubt one of the most challenging times in my life and I would not have been able to make it through had it not been for the help of Allah, first, and the support of many around me. I begin by thanking my committee of four truly wonderful individuals. I can’t begin to express my gratitude to each one of them for believing in my potential and supporting my endeavor to move to Philadelphia and embark upon a research agenda that has encouraged me to reach for the upper limits of success. I’ll never forget Nancy’s “cheerleader” emails with messages that always moved me forward. Thank you, Nancy for standing beside me whether I was in Tallahassee or a thousand miles away. I thank you, Paul for your “clincher” questions and for providing me with images of how one can iv manage a career and a family. My sincere thanks to you, George, for always reminding me to learn from past research and for sharing your years of experience and wisdom with me. And, to David, thank you for always making time in your demanding schedule to help me meet my tight deadlines. My appreciation also extends to my family who has been behind me in every way conceivable. Whether it was my father running with me to Office Depot to make last minute copies or my mother rocking Hadi to sleep while I worked late office hours, there are no words to thank my parents for the lengths to which they have gone to ensure that I would make it. Nor can I thank my sister, Sana, sufficiently—for always placing her hand in mine and for the many times she was a mother to Hadi, when I couldn’t be. And how can I express the significance of having my Ahmed stay up with me through long nights of writing or my gratitude for him taking care of Hadi and our home, day after long day —giving up his dreams so that I could achieve mine. And finally, I thank Hadi, for it was often in my saddest moments when I thought I couldn’t continue that holding him as he slept gave me the strength to carry on. Certainly, without even saying a word, Ahmed and Hadi were the greatest motivation for this completed dissertation—as I dreamt of the days I would be able to share special times with them again. As I conclude, I express heartfelt recognition to the five wonderful youth who participated in this study and to the Penn research group who provided feedback and encouragement. My final thanks go to my dear friend, Hadia, for the time that she spent making copies, printing pages and acquiring signatures—without which this document would never have been published. To all of you, your assistance will never be forgotten. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………...… x-xii 1. THE PROBLEM ……………………………………………………………………..1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………..1 Minority Children in Urban Schools ……………………………………………..2 Hard-Felt Poverty African American Children in Urban Schools ……………………………..4 Looking at the Test Scores Characteristics of Urban Schools ……………………………………………..5 Teacher Quality Resources Curriculum Quality The Role of Urban Schools in Social Reproduction Patterns ……………………..8 Interrupting the Cycle: Social Transformation Purpose ……………………………………………………………….…..…...…12 Context of the Study …………………………………………………………....13 University of Pennsylvania Participants …………………………………………………………………....14 Students from City High School Employment of the Students in the Study Time Line of the Summer Project ……………………………………...…….17 June 11, 2001 – June 22, 2001: Science in the Movies Project June 25th – July 13th: Sound in the City Project July 16th – July 18th: Electricity and Magnetism Activities July 19th – July 27th: Newton’s Laws July 30th – August 16th: Research Assistant Role August 27th – September 7th: Three-Tiered Ethnography Project Overview for the Dissertation Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………30 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ……………………………………………………32 The Reproduction of Social Stratification ……………………………………32 Students Who Fall Through the Cracks vi The Importance of Understanding African American, Inner City Students’ Cultural Background Culture as Systems of Symbols and Meanings and Systems of Practices Cultures are Structured………………………………………………..................38 The Transformational Nature of Structured Cultures Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………44 Oh May my May 3. METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………47 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………47 Critical Ethnography as a Political Approach to Research ……………………48 The Social Construction of Research Understandings “Research With” Versus “Research On” –Evolving Roles Data Sources ……………………………………………………………………57 Audiotaping Videotaping Field Notes/Journals Artifacts Judging the Quality of Research ……………………………………………63 Trustworthiness of the Study Authenticity of the Study Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………66 4. THE ROLE OF CULTURAL CAPITAL IN LEARNING PHYSICS ……………67 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………67 The Snapshot with Everything in It Cultural Capital Within a Science Learning Environment ……………………69 An Attitude of Determination Intense Confrontational Interaction Styles During the Learning Process Non-Confrontational Strategy of Action Oral Tradition, Movement and Verve: Integrated Strategies of Action Conclusion …………………………………………………………………...95 5. UNDERSTANDINGS FROM HOME AND NEIGHBORHOOD CULTURES…....97 Ties to Home ……………………………………………………………….. ..97 The Weak Boundaries of Culture Cultural Capital from the Home and Neighborhood Fields Enacted in the Learning Environment …………………………………………..………101 Decent and Street Social Categories On the Inner City Streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Presence of Guns Murder vii Systems of Practices and Symbols Contradiction: The Flowers among the Graves Drugs Simultaneous Rejection and Acceptance of the Drug Culture The Deeper Meaning: Respect The Group Practice of Catching a Body Contradiction: Groups for Social Companionship Group membership as a reinforcing symbol for respect Strategies of Action from the Decent Culture Conclusion …………………………………………………………..............132 6. EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES OF SCIENCE THROUGH AGENCY …..134 When the Goal Became Learning …………………………………………..134 Contradiction: “I Don’t Like Finding the Science in Stuff; I Don’t Find it Amusing” Tools, Community, Division of Labor and Rule Structures Preview from the Movie …………………………………………………..142 You Don’t Think That It Mean Nothin’ Scientific But It Does Behind the Scenes of the Frequency/Pitch Productions Rapping Along to Different Speeds of Sound Learning Discussions From Behind the Scenes When Science Changes …………………………………………………..154 Cultural Production and Reproduction The Result was Agency …………………………………………………..156 Social Capital From the Sound Movie Conclusion ………………………...……………………………...…………159 7. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY …..161 Summary …………………………………………………………………..161 What This Study Was About What I learned Conclusions …………………………………………………………………..164 How do issues of respect become part of the interactions between the students and between the students and me? How do rapport and relationships develop over the summer? What components of the students’ social and cultural capital are favorable to their learning of physics? What components of the students’ social and cultural capital may work adversely to their learning of physics? Implications …………………………………………………………………..170 Implications for Policy Makers and Curriculum Implications for Urban Students Implications for Teacher Education viii The Last Word REFERENCES …………………………………………………………..178 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH …………………………………………………..185 ix ABSTRACT This critical ethnography focused on five urban African American students, coming from economically disadvantaged homes in Philadelphia, who were considered at