About this SIG
This Special Interest Group serves as an international network linking researchers with an interest on how the languages of science (including non-verbal representations), and their associated literacies, afford, mediate, support or hinder science teaching and learning. The idea for this SIG was initiated following several symposia held during ESERA 2017 at Dublin and a follow up symposium at Stockholm on ‘Future Directions for Literacy Research in Science Education’ on 28 & 29 August 2017. Approved by the ESERA Board in March 2018, the SIG is open for all ESERA members to join and participate.
Reflecting a contemporary view of languages and literacies in the plural, the SIG examines 3 broad areas of research on language issues within science education: (a) the languages of students’ cultures and communities, including their local vernaculars, standardized national languages, and everyday terms and registers, (b) the languages of specific disciplines that have unique ontological, epistemological, linguistic and pedagogical characteristics and (c) the languages of multimodal representations consisting of speech, written words, images, symbols, graphs and gestures that are essential to scientific meaning making. Each of these cultural, disciplinary and representational languages requires a different set of literacy skills and instructions in order for students to become successful in science. As these 3 areas of language and literacy are overlapping and intertwined, there is an increasing convergence among researchers working together in this common space, which therefore calls for the necessity of this SIG.
Our Aims & Scope
The aims of the SIG are to:
- Establish and maintain a network of researchers in Europe and beyond with an interest in languages and literacies in science education
- Facilitate contact and collaboration among researchers working across institutions, countries and disciplinary areas
- Disseminate and discuss research findings and ongoing research through regular meetings and communications
- Disseminate and coordinate invitations and calls to joint symposia, seminars, conferences, special issues or book projects
- Support new and early researchers with a community of established and experienced scholars
The SIG is open to a range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies drawing from cognitive, linguistic, semiotic, sociocultural, anthropological, and pragmatist traditions. Besides science education researchers, the SIG includes and welcomes researchers from language and literacy education, applied linguistics and the learning sciences. The range of topics explored in the SIG includes, but is not limited to, the language of science, classroom discourse, representation, multimodality, disciplinary literacy, content and language integrated learning (CLIL), bi/multilingualism, reading/writing-to-learn, academic language, visual literacy, text/discourse analysis.
Founding Coordinators
Kok-Sing Tang, Curtin University
Kok-Sing is a senior lecturer at the School of Education and the discipline lead of the STEM Education Research Group (formerly SMEC) at Curtin University. He holds a BA and MSc in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a MA and PhD in Education from the University of Michigan. His research focus on the disciplinary language and literacy of science, particularly in upper secondary physics and chemistry. His research also intersects with studies of classroom discourse and multimodality as he draws on semiotic and sociocultural theories to examine the conditions of classroom practices that promote or hinder science learning. Kok-Sing will be coordinating the SIG until 2024.
Kristina Danielsson, Linnaeus University
Kristina is a professor at Department of Swedish, Linnaeus University, Sweden. She has a PhD in Scandinavian languages and was formerly professor in reading and writing development at Department of Language Education, Stockholm University. Her research deals with multimodal perspectives of disciplinary literacy, in particular in science. She has been part of a number of interdisciplinary research projects and developmental projects in elementary and secondary science classrooms. In these projects she has examined the literacy practices as well as the ways in which different semiotic resources are used to talk about science phenomena, and what consequences this might lead to regarding the opportunities given for students’ meaning-making in science. A recent developmental project deals with the possibilities of letting young learners explain science phenomena through their own creation of stop-motion films. Kristina will be coordinating the SIG until 2022.
Founding Members
Founding Members of the SIG at the Stockholm Symposium on ‘Future Directions for Literacy Research in Science Education’
| Name | Institution & Country | |
| 1 | Airey, John | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| 2 | Amaral, Edenia | Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Brazil |
| 3 | Amin, Tamer | American University of Beirut, Lebanon |
| 4 | Axelsson, Monica | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| 5 | Berg, Astrid | Linköping University, Sweden |
| 6 | Bergh Nestlog, Ewa | Linnaeus University, Sweden |
| 7 | BouJaoude, Saouma | American University of Beirut, Lebanon |
| 8 | Cavalcanti Neto, Ana Lucia | Secretary of Education in Escada, Brazil |
| 9 | Danielsson, Kristina | Linnaeus University, Sweden |
| 10 | Espinet, Mariona | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain |
| 11 | Forey, Gail | Bath University, UK |
| 12 | Fredlund, Tobias | University of Oslo, Norway |
| 13 | Ge, Yun-Ping | National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan |
| 14 | Hand, Brian | University of Iowa, USA |
| 15 | He, Peichang | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR |
| 16 | Ho, Caroline | Ministry of Education, Singapore |
| 17 | Hubber, Peter | Deakin University, Australia |
| 18 | Hultén, Magnus | Linköping University, Sweden |
| 19 | Jakobsson, Anders | Malmö University, Sweden |
| 20 | Jeppsson, Fredrik | Linköping University, Sweden |
| 21 | Knain, Erik | University of Oslo, Norway |
| 22 | Lai, Haiwen Karen | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR |
| 23 | Larsson, Johanna | Uppsala University, Sweden |
| 24 | Lin, Angel | Simon Fraser University, Canada |
| 25 | Liu, Yu | Sichuan International Studies University, China |
| 26 | Lo, Yuen Yi | The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR |
| 27 | Löfgren, Ragnhild | Linköping University, Sweden |
| 28 | Markic, Silvija | University of Education Ludwigsburg, Germany |
| 29 | Martin, Sonya | Seoul National University, Korea |
| 30 | Martins, Isabel | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| 31 | McClune, William | Queen’s University Belfast, UK |
| 32 | McDermott, Mark | University of Iowa, USA |
| 33 | Moje, Elizabeth | University of Michigan, USA |
| 34 | Mork, Sonja | Norwegian Centre for Science Education, Norway |
| 35 | Mortimer, Eduardo | Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| 36 | Msimanga, Audrey | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| 37 | Olander, Clas | Malmö University, Sweden |
| 38 | Osborne, Jonathan | Stanford University, USA |
| 39 | Ødegaard, Marianne | University of Oslo, Norway |
| 40 | Pettersson, Alma | Linköping University, Sweden |
| 41 | Prain, Vaughan | Deakin University, Australia |
| 42 | Rappa, Natasha | Murdoch University, Australia |
| 43 | Rundgren, Carl-Johan | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| 44 | Seah, Lay Hoon | Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |
| 45 | Siry, Christina | University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg |
| 46 | Tang, Kok-Sing | Curtin University, Australia |
| 47 | Tippett, Christine | University of Ottawa, Canada |
| 48 | Toth, Jeanette | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| 49 | Tytler, Russell | Deakin University, Australia |
| 50 | Uddling, Jenny | Stockholm University, Sweden |
| 51 | Unsworth, Len | Australian Catholic University, Australia |
| 52 | Yore, Larry | University of Victoria, Canada |
