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Brown, Bryan
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Bryan A. Brown is a professor of teacher education. His research interest explores the relationship between student identity, discourse, classroom culture, and academic achievement in science education. He focuses on the social connotations and cultural politics of science discourse in small-group and whole-group interaction. Additionally, his research work in science education examines how teacher and student discourse serve to shape learning opportunities for students in science classrooms. Dr. Brown's work in science education in urban communities focuses on developing collaborative curricular cycles and classroom pedagogy based on developing discourse intensive instruction for urban learners. His research has expanded beyond his focus on science education, to include issues of college access in urban communities. As the founder and director of the Etu Schule Educational Project (KiSwahilli for "Our Schools"), his recent work explores how classroom and school culture shapes access to higher education. The Etu Schule Educational Project provides academic training and long-term mentoring for minority students throughout the state of California.
Current research explores the relationship between student identity, classroom learning, and science literacy.
Quote
The work of linguists informs us that in any discursive exchange (written, read, spoken, and enacted), speakers and listeners co-construct meaning through moment-to-moment interactions that serve to position them as particular types of people (e.g. scientific, literate, competent, and so forth)[Agar, 1994; Fishman, 1989; Gee, 1999, Gumperz, 1997]. As a result, learning the content and practices associated with science, and ultimately employing the literate practices of science classrooms are prerequisite for developing scientific literacy; yet accomplishing this requires some appropriation of a scientific identity. The notion of scientific literacy must be explored by deconstructing its two constituent components; being ‘scientific’ and engaging in the literate practices associated with this state of being. Choices of discursive practices related to appropriating scientific knowledge within classroom contexts carry implications regarding how students and teachers perceive one another as well as themselves. The negotiated role of academic identity within an institutional setting such as science classrooms has the potential to directly impinge on academic success if students fail to appropriate the identity associated with becoming scientifically literate.
-from Brown, Reveles, & Kelly (2004)Scientific Literacy & Discursive Identity: A Theoretical Framework For Understanding Science Education
Education
- PhD (Education- Science Education) University of California, Santa Barbara 2002
- MA (Education- Science Education) University of California, Santa Barbara 1999
- BS (Biology) Hampton University, 1996
Time at Stanford
Since 2003
Professional Experience
Visiting Professor (08/02 - 07/03)
Visiting Professor in Michigan State University's department of teacher education
Curricular Reform Consultant (09/02 - 08/03)
Program director and curriculum designer for Plymouth Educational Center- Detroit, MI
Research Assistant (10/02 - 10/03)
University of California Los Angeles, UC ACCORD INDICATORS Project
Research Assistant (10/02 - 10/03)
University of California, Los Angeles, Choices Research Project
Research Assistant (9/97 - 6/00)
University of California, Santa Barbara / Long Beach State University Collaborative Project
Teaching Experience:
Long Beach Unified School District (8/96 - 6/97) Biology and Life Science teacher at David Starr Jordan High School of Long Beach,CA Long Beach Unified School District (8/99 - 6/01) Biology and Life Science teacher at David Starr Jordan High School of Long Beach,CA
Academic Training and Professional Mentoring:
San Francisco Bay Area & Los Angeles, CA 1995 - Present
Founder and director of operations for The Etu Schule Educational Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to training and preparing minority high school students for college admission
Courses Taught
- ED 336X - Language Identity & Classroom Learning
- ED 267 - Curriculum and Instruction in Science Education
- ED 359 - Seminar in Science & Learning: Scientific Literacy
- ED 269 - Principle of Learning for Teaching
- ED 232C - Theory of Learning
Recent Publications
Brown, B.; & Kloser, Matthew. (in press) Conceptual Continuity & Accessing Everyday Scientific Understandings. Cultural Studies in Science Education
Brown, B.; & Kloser, Matthew. (in press) Conceptual Continuity & Accessing Everyday Scientific Understandings. Cultural Studies in Science Education
Brown, B.; & Mutegi, J. (in press) Retrofitting Scientific Racism: Scientific Racism and its impact on Science Education. In Allen, W. The Encyclopedia of Race in Education.
Brown, B.; Brown, C.; U. Jayakumar, U. (in press) When culture’s clash: Transposing a college going culture in an urban school. In Allen, W. [Ed.] CHOICES.
PUBLISHED
Brown, B; & Ryoo, K. (2008) Teaching Science as a Language: A ‘Content-First’ approach to science teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 525-664.
Reveles, J.; & Brown, B. (2008) Discursive Identity and Science Teaching: Teachers Emphasizing Student Identity in Science Instruction. Science Education, 92, 5.
Brown, B. (2008) Assessment and Academic Identity: Using Embedded Assessment as an instrument for Academic Socialization in Science Education. Teachers College Record, 110, 10, p
Brown, B.; & Spang, E. (2008) Teaching Science as an Academic Discourse: Creating the Context for Scientific Discourse Appropriation. Science Education, 92 p.708-732.
Brown, B.; & Kelly, G. (2007) When Clarity and Style Meet Substance: Language, Identity, and the Appropriation of Science Discourse. Roth, W.M. , & Tobin, K. (Eds.) Science, Learning, Identity: Sociocultural and Cultural-Historical Perspectives. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Brown, B. (2006) “It isn't no slang that can be said about this stuff”: Language, Identity, and Appropriating Science Discourse. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(1) pp.96-126.
Brown, B.; Reveles, J.; & Kelly, G. (2005) Scientific Literacy and Discursive Identity: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Science Education. Science Education, 89, 779-802.
Brown, B. (2005) The Politics of Public Discourse: Discourse, Identity and African-Americans in science education. The Negro Educational Review, 56(2) 205-220.
Brown, B. (2004) Discursive Identity: Assimilation into the culture of science and its implications for minority students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 41, No.8, pp.810-834.
Bianchini, J.; Hilton-Brown, B., & Therese D. Breton. (2002) Professional development for university scientists around issues of equity and diversity: Investigating dissent within community. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Vol. 38, No. 8, pp.738-771.
Bianchini, J.; Breton, T.; Hilton-Brown, B.A., & Whitney, D.A., (2000). Toward Inclusive Science Education: University Scientists’ Views of Students, Instructional Practices, and the Nature of Science. Science Education. Vol. 86, Issue: 1, pp: 42-78
