Swimming with the shoal

Journal article

This article responds to Yuli Rahmawati and Peter Charles Taylor’s piece and explores my role as a science teacher, science teacher educator and researcher in two contexts, Sierra Leone and Bhutan. In the first part of the article I reflect on my 3 years as a science teacher in Sierra Leone and demonstrate resonances with Yuli’s accounts of culture shock and with her positioning of herself in a third space. I also reflect on the importance of colleagues in helping me reshape my identity as a science teacher in this new context. The second part of the article reflects on much shorter periods of time in Bhutan and my work as a teacher educator and researcher where, unlike Sierra Leone, it was not possible because of the short periods I worked there, to occupy a third space. I close by discussing how in Bhutan, but also Sierra Leone, collaboration with colleagues allowed me to contribute my own expertise, despite my lack of a deep understanding of the cultural context, in a way that was as valuable as possible. I liken this way of collaborative working in my professional life as ‘swimming with the shoal’.

Authors: Childs, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Journal: Cultural Studies of Science Education
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 539–548
• Publication date: 2017-10-04
• Acceptance date: 2017-04-17
• DOI: 10.1007/s11422-017-9815-3
• EISSN: 1871-1510
• ISSN: 1871-1502
• Language: English
• Keywords: collaboration; distributed expertise; science teacher identity