Exploring the Epistemic Equity Among Physics Teachers’ Agency to Support Inclusivity in Learning

Abstract

This study considers how the learning of physics is powered by culture, language, and subject matter to enable equity to be obtained. We analyse how teachers come to understand the Form 4 physics students’ sense making and establish their expectations regarding the learning outcome. This paper draws attention to a discourse analysis of 44 physics lessons from 4 physics teachers at Malaysian Elementary Schools about the epistemic equity of teachers’ discourse when assigning value to physics ideas. The data collected for this study is audio video recordings focusing on how well the teachers’ agency helps to reposition students as the knowledge producer. This study examines what social conditions constitute teachers’ discursive practice during the meaning making process. Three types of social condition, known as elicit, rhetorical, and conclusive, are identified and presented as discourse moves. From our findings, we provide recommendations for policy makers’ and teachers’ agency to start setting rational goals of inclusivity that could enhance equity in elementary physics education. The recommendations aim at disrupting the historical inequitable structures that exist between the teacher and the students. This study argues for a reconceptualization of pedagogic discourse to accommodate the transformation of social interaction in the physics classroom. The discourse analysis provides teachers with a didactical awareness of how to empower and disempower students.//Paper ID 186