Learning in Diversities of Structures of Social Practice: Accounting for How, Why and Where People Learn Science

This paper outlines a theoretical framework intended to provide a more ecological and holistic accounting of how, why and where people learn in relation to constructs of human difference – race, class, disability designation, etc. – as learners circulate across places and associated operating value systems over multiple timescales. The framework for cultural learning pathways is an application and elaboration of Ole Dreier’s theory of persons in diversities of structures of social practice with a focus on the learning of disciplinary practices and the development of discipline-related identities. We summarize relevant learning phenomena along extended cultural pathways from three team ethnographies of science learning. We outline how power-related issues associated with privilege and marginalization are attended to in relation to the social, cultural, and material circumstances of learning within and across environments and discuss future research opportunities.