Exploring How Past Experiences with Science Shape Mexican Elementary Teachers’ Science Teaching

This qualitative study investigates how past experiences with science shape science teaching of three elemen tary teachers in Mexico. To explore how these experiences shape their views of science, in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers to understand their perspectives on science, their beliefs about effective science instruction, and their actual teaching approaches. For data analysis, a constant comparative method was employed. The narratives of the three teachers clearly showed teachers past experiences with science play a critical role in what they bring to their science classrooms, illus trating how their science related experiences connect to the elementary teachers’ views, beliefs, and approaches in science teaching. Each teacher demonstrated a rather unique story to their own science instruction, varying from a textbook-centered instruction to experiment-focused science instruction and community-based problem-solving approach. Their stories illus trated that teachers are actively leveraging their past experiences with science in their science teaching. The contextual atten tion given to teachers’ lived experiences with science revealed three important themes in discussion; cognitive interactions with science, social interactions with significant others, and reconciliation of in-school and out-of-school experiences. These themes offer valuable insights to better understand the meaning of teachers’ past experiences with science.