Constraining the discourse community: how science instruction perpetuates marginalization of underrepresented students

This ethnographic study examines how lower-track rural African American students make sense of their position in school and what role school science discourse plays in their micro-cultural identity formation. The objectives of the study are to determine the science discourse's role in (1) determining access to knowledge, (2) affecting lower-track students' perceptions of school, and (3) perpetuating lower-track science students' identity. The constraints identified with lower-track science classroom discourse are strong hegemonic factors in determining students' behaviors, beliefs, and social and academic positions in the school hierarchy.