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The purpose of this study is to challenge the prevailing negative narrative related to elementary science teaching by investigating the experiences of elementary teachers who identify as science teacher enthusiasts (STEs). Holland, Lachiotte, Skinner, and Cain (1998)'s conception of identity as an ongoing production or construction in a socio-cultural context served as a theoretical framing for exploring structural and personal supports and constraints related to the development of elementary teachers' science teaching identities. Through interviews with 13 inservice elementary teachers with a range of experience (1-40 years), we found that students' enthusiasm for science, connections with other enthusiasts, and opportunities for integrating science with other content areas were the major supports for consistent science teaching. Positive emotions associated with these supports helped the participants mitigate constraints such as lack of time, resources, testing, and not feeling comfortable with the science content frequently associated with portraits of elementary teachers. By understanding the experiences of STEs, science educators can use their role as preservice educators and professional developers to provide these supports to bolster the science teaching identity trajectories of individuals with whom they work.

In consideration of the potential of drawing and writing as assessment and learning tools, we explored how early primary students used these modes to communicate their science understandings. The context for this study was a curricular unit that incorporated multiple modes of representation in both the presentation of information and production of student understanding with a focus on the structure and function of carnivorous plants (CPs). Two science teacher educators and two first-grade teachers in the United States co-planned and co-taught a multimodal science unit on CP structure and function that included multiple representations of Venus flytraps (VFTs): physical specimens, photographs, videos, text, and discussions. Pre- and post-assessment student drawings and writings were statistically compared to note significant changes, and pre- and post-assessment writings were qualitatively analysed to note themes in student ideas. Results indicate that students increased their knowledge of VFT structure and function and synthesised information from multiple modes. While students included more structures of the VFT in their drawings, they were better able to describe the functions of structures in their writings. These results suggest the benefits for student learning and assessment of having early primary students represent their science understandings in multiple modes.

The purpose of this article is to explore how preservice elementary teachers (PSETs) interpreted their service-learning experiences within a pre-methods environmentally focused course and how their interpretations shaped their science teaching identities. Along a continuum of service-learning experiences were events that emphasized science learning, that focused on science teaching, and that were transitional, with elements of both science learning and science teaching. These various service-learning experiences were designed to be "boundary experiences" for professional identity development (Geijsel & Meijers in "Educational Studies," 3(4), 419-430, 2005), providing opportunities for PSETs to reflect on meanings in cultural contexts and how they are related to their own personal meanings. We analyzed written reflections and end-of-course oral reflection interviews from 42 PSETs on their various service-learning experiences. PSETs discussed themes related to the meanings they made of the service-learning experiences: (a) experiencing science in relation to their lives as humans and future teachers, (b) interacting with elementary students and other PSETs, and (c) making an impact in the physical environment and in the community. The connections that PSETs were making between the discursive spaces (service-learning contexts) and their own meaning-making of these experiences (as connected to their own interests in relation to their future professions and daily lives) shows evidence of the potential that various types of science service-learning experiences have for PSETs in developing inbound science teaching identity trajectories (Wenger in "Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). The findings of this study point to positive outcomes for PSETs when they participate in structured service-learning experiences along a learning to teaching continuum (246).

I argue that Ricoeur's "preunderstandings" can be used as a heuristic to aid researchers who collect narratives as data (1) to identify cultural meanings that become resources for participants' positioning work, (2) to ground the identified cultural meanings in participants' experiences, and (3) to understand participants' interpretations of constraint and agency within that context. I outline how the philosophical hermeneutics of Ricoeur is consistent with a sociocultural perspective on positioning and identity, as well as present data analysis questions developed from Ricoeur's ideas of narrative configuration to explore common cultural meanings used by participants in interpreting their lived experience. These questions provide a strategy to examine how participants may be referring to common cultural meanings but their individual interpretations of these meanings can have different implications for their feelings of agency.

As colleges and universities aim for greater diversity in their undergraduate populations, one population researchers consider is first-generation students, or students whose parents do not have a college education. The research reported here addresses first-generation college students' discipline of study (e.g., biology) and its impact on their persistence. Exploring how female, low-income, first-generation college students evaluate their persistence within undergraduate science learning environments contributes to understanding how gender and social class influence persistence in STEM fields. Two White, female, low-income, first-generation college students were interviewed during their last year in college. Using constant comparative coding methods and Ricoeur's (Ricoeur [1984] "Time and narrative, Volume I" (K. McLaughlin & D. Pellauer, Trans.), Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press) description of narrative construction, common tensions were identified related to participants' descriptions of undergraduate science as competitive. These persistence-related tensions are (1) differing experiences in lecture and lab, (2) managing time to work, study, and maintain family relationships, and (3) weighing their personal (family) priorities against the longer time it would take them to reach their science-related career goals. These tensions depict a traditional undergraduate science learning environment focused on individuals and abstract knowledge that positions female lower-income students as "academic non-competitors" because of the importance of kinship ties and physical skills in their cultural background (Lareau [2002] "American Sociological Review" 67(5), 747-776; Lareau [2003] "Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life." Berkeley: University of California Press). The participants' experiences support that the gendered and classed expectations needed to succeed in a science environment could be somewhat alleviated through reforms to traditional lecture and laboratory undergraduate science courses that promote cooperative student learning groups and integration of lecture with hands-on activities.