ORIGINAL PAPER
Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms.
Part 1: Investigating corporate and communal practices
Christopher Emdin
Received: 13 February 2007 / Accepted: 13 February 2007 / Published online: 11 April 2007

Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Abstract In this paper, I discuss the existence of varying ideologies and perspectives
within urban science classrooms and uncover the importance of focusing on student and
teacher practices as a means to bridge these disconnections. Specifically, I describe the
existence of corporate and communal ideologies and the dynamics that create the mis-
alignment between groups that hold allegiances to these varying belief systems. Utilizing
three allied theoretical frames, this paper provides a multi layered and timely analysis of
the teaching of science in an urban high school in New York City. I conjoin Bourdieu’s
sociocultural theory, an analysis of social life through the use of the structure|agency
dialectic, and a theorizing of corporate and communal practice to embark on a journey into
how African American and Latino/a students’ ways of knowing and being can be utilized
to meet the goal of improving their success in science.
Keywords Urban education
Corporate practices
Communal practices

Cogenerative dialogue
Erin: Look every year its like... (making a fist and striking it against his palm) you got to
do this and you got to do that, and you got to do that and basically all these teachers
need to breathe a little bit..... damn, relax
Perspectives on African American and Latino/a students in science classrooms
Historically, the achievement of African American and Latino/a students has been reported
to fall far below their white counterparts in science and mathematics (Brand et al., 2006).
In New York City, where this study is located, African American and Latino/a students
take fewer advanced science classes and score lower on standardized science exams than
C. Emdin (&)
Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street,
New York, NY 10027-6696, USA
e-mail: christopher_emdin@yahoo.com
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Cult Scie Edu (2007) 2:319–350
DOI 10.1007/s11422-007-9055-z

their white counterparts (New York State Education Department, 2006). In fact, over the
last 6 years, the achievement gaps in science between whites and blacks and whites and
Latinos have dramatically widened (NAEP, 2006). These statistics are alarming and
widespread throughout the country (NCES, 2006). Consequently, many researchers have
rightfully focused on researching the achievement gap between inner city students (mostly
African American and Latino/a youth) and their counterparts in suburban schools.
Unfortunately, these studies have focused on lowering the achievement gap by engaging
in research that primarily looks at ways to increase the number of urban students that are
successful on standardized exams or describing the achievement gap (Jencks & Phillips,
1998) without factoring in the sociocultural underpinnings of the divides in achievement
between groups. Engaging in research through this lens provides only a limited scope of
what needs to be investigated and invites the use of different approaches to research that
provide different explanations for the poor achievement of African American and Latino/a
students in science.
While I see the value of current and existent research because it provides opportunities
for teachers and researchers that may not be aware of the dynamics within inner city
schools to become privy to the realities of the achievement gap in science, I take issue with
the ways that this research has been interpreted, and the ease with which its outcomes
describe urban students through deficit lenses. These approaches propose reasons for urban
students’ lack of achievement as issues intimately tied to character traits or dispositions
that cannot be divorced from a lack of success in school (Perry et al., 2003). Consequently,
we are presented with research that appears to be functioning for the purpose of shedding
light on issues that plague marginalized students while concurrently reaffirming false
notions of a tacit intellectual deficiency or lack of desire among African American, Latino/
a and other students who may not ascribe to macro societal norms. The end result of these
studies is a bringing forth of notions of urban populations as being both ‘‘other than’’ and
‘‘less than’’ their counterparts in more affluent schools.
Furthermore, the delineation of varying structures and belief systems that mediate
student achievement in science classrooms is notably absent from current research. Science
educators vigorously fight against an investigation of student and institutional practices (in
order to present their outcomes as unbiased and objective) and consequently, push towards
a waterfall of deficit-based ideologies that ignore an existent and silenced undercurrent that
leads towards a more contextualized and sociocultural approach to investigating science
classrooms.
Presenting a varying ideology in science teaching and research
This study was developed as a result of an observation of chemistry teachers forging ahead
in teaching a state implemented, time driven curriculum that yielded poor results (as
measured by students’ acquisition of content knowledge displayed on in-class examina-
tions, and other teacher assessments). This study also was fueled by the experiences of a
physics teacher as he struggled with getting a student to engage in the class when teachers
had tagged him as disinterested in school.
When I engaged in conversations about students’ results on assessments or lack of
interest in class with teachers, their responses yielded comments that mirror much of
current societal beliefs about students of color as teachers faulted students for their lack of
interest in, or ability to succeed in school. As a result of the observations and conversations
that spurred this study, I proceed by looking for means to interrogate the issues that
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