“It's all human error!”: When a school science experiment fails

This paper traces the sophisticated negotiations to re-inscribe the authority of Nature when a school science experiment fails during the enactment of a highly rated science curriculum unit. Drawing on transcriptions from classroom videotapes, we identify and describe four primary patterns of interaction that characterize this process, arguing that these patterns recall the process of entextualization by which inscriptions in science become facts, and by which any cultural text (e.g., Weyewa placation rites) gains coherence.