#741: Building Models and Relationships: Distribution of Authority in an Elementary Science Classroom

This paper describes a design-based research study exploring how interactions during modeling activities in a fifth-grade science classroom position students with authority. I explore how authority is inequitably distributed through students’ access to the conversational floor and interactional space, as well as through evaluations of intellectual and social merit. Qualitative coding is used to analyze students’ participation bids during whole-class activities and pedagogical actions that disrupt or perpetuate the inequitable distribution of authority among students in this class. Findings suggest that while authority can be inequitably distributed in a classroom community, teachers can enact moves that disrupt this inequity in moment-to-moment interactions. This has implications for supporting learning environments that foster equitable engagement with science practice and collaborative knowledge construction.