| Abstract: | For many students the study of science can be very disaffirming. This may lead to passivity in class and a lifelong disaffection with science, outcomes which defeat the long‐term purpose of trying to achieve scientific literacy for all students. This article represents a new way of framing scientific literacy with a “science for all” goal, based on a nexus of psychological, sociological, and critical literacy theory. A science education researcher and a science teacher collaborated in trialing the use of affirmational dialogue journal writing with early adolescents in a high school situated in a low socioeconomic status area. The intervention was found to be successful on a number of fronts. An approach which affirms students' experience can lead to a deeper approach to learning for adolescent science students. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 699–717, 1999 |
