Student agency to participate in dialogic science discussions

Students enter learning situations (informal and formal alike) with a wealth of knowledge, skill and expertise with which to engage in new learning experiences. However, in dialogic science discussions, many students do not call on these resources to engaging in discussion, and some students rarely participate. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid model of agency as a lens to examine the enablers and barriers to students' engagement in dialogic science discussions. We operationalize this model in the analysis of students' participation patterns in whole class discussions and their narratives about experiences in these discussions. The findings show that all students enact agency in discussion, but differences lie in the extent to which students perceive that they can enact agency. We find that social structures that help to create and perpetuate differences in students' sense that they can enact their agency. We discuss the implications of these findings on what teachers can do to support equitable participation in talk in the service of equitable opportunities for learning.