Biography: Christina Siry is Professor of Learning and Instruction at the University of Luxembourg, and her research interests are in early childhood science education and teacher education for science. Grounded in critical theories, she seeks to highlight the complex ways children engage in science. Together with her team, she investigates the multimodal ways plurilingual children engage in science learning spaces to highlight the resources they bring to the interaction. The understandings gleaned through research with children are brought to teacher education through her main project, The SciTeach Center – a teacher resource centre at the University of Luxembourg.

Background: This presentation introduces the work that my research team and I conduct focusing on plurilingual young children’s engagement in science inquiry.

Aim: My work aims to highlight how children engage in science and to provide inclusive opportunities for children’s embodied engagement with science and each other, to work towards equitable and just learning spaces.

Method: This presentation presents the work being done by myself and my colleagues through our work at The SciTeach Center, a resource centre dedicated to the teaching and learning of science in elementary school and early childhood contexts. We seek to uncover, highlight, and valorise children’s embodied engagement in science, and to work with teachers to create opportunities for open-ended investigations.

Results: I will draw across several studies that we have conducted to elaborate on what we are learning as we work towards equitable practices in science education, particularly with culturally and linguistically diverse young students. The methodologies we have developed support expanded views of voice – as something that is much more than spoken, and I will introduce the value of multimodal perspectives.

Conclusions: I hope this presentation leaves a viewer with new perspectives on the value of providing time and space for children to engage in open-ended science inquiry and new reflections regarding the inherent complexities of children’s science learning.

Implications for children and families: Openly exploring phenomena can provide a great way to wonder about science and for children to pursue related questions.

Implications for practitioners: It is important to create open spaces for children to engage with science, to listen to young children’s ideas and wonderings.

Funding: The SciTeach Center is supported through funding and collaborations with: Fondation Veuve Emile Metz-Tesch, The Losch Foundation, Luxembourg Ministry of Education, Children and Youth (IFEN and SCRIPT divisions) and The Luxembourg National Research Fund

Key words: children’s voices, professionals’ voices, innovations, communication, education, qualitative methods, theory + equity, children’s science engagement

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: 

• SDG 4: Quality Education