- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540789
- First Name Gillian
- Last Name Roehrig
- Discipline Science
- Co-PI(s)
Julie Brown, University of Minnesota, jcbrown@umn.edu; Joshua Ellis, Michigan Technological University, ellisj@mtu.edu
- Presenters
Julie Brown, University of Minnesota, jcbrown@umn.edu; Joshua Ellis, Michigan Technological University, ellisj@mtu.edu
Need
Science teachers are often under-prepared to educate diverse students (Song, 2006) and struggle with teaching in ways that are culturally responsive (Patchen & Cox-Petersen, 2008). Because of the great influence of teachers on student learning and the potential of equitable science teaching to positively impact underrepresented students’ academic performance, the development of culturally responsive science teachers must also be supported. Few induction programs have been designed to support teachers’ professional growth in this manner; yet, to foster educational equity such programs are an imperative. Scholars who research induction for secondary science teachers have focused on supporting and developing teachers’ inquiry-based beliefs and practices. While there is evidence to suggest complementarity between inquiry-based and culturally responsive science teaching (Brown, 2014; Brown & Crippen, in review; Johnson, 2011), “inquiry-based instruction without culturally responsive pedagogy…may not be sufficient to support non-mainstream students in science learning and may even serve to challenge students’ cultural ways of knowing” (Meyer & Crawford, 2011, p. 525, italics added). Thus, a primary focus of PREPScI is to research the NRC (2010) priority area of “the effectiveness of various approaches to preparing teachers in… teaching diverse learners” (p. 63) by identifying components and characteristics of induction supports that develop teachers’ equitable science teaching practices.
Goals
The overarching goal of this project is to develop an empirically-grounded recruitment and induction program that supports beginning and future science teachers’ development of reflective practices and reform-based, equitable science teaching strategies. While researchers have documented the impact of induction on teacher retention and promoting reform-based practices (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004) and the effectiveness of Learning Assistant program to recruit future science teachers (Otero, Pollock, & Finkelstein, 2010), there is little research on the types of learning experiences that can best support beginning and future science teachers. Thus, PREPScI proposes to research the complex processes of recruitment and induction and what types of experiences best support beginning and future science teachers’ development of equitable, reform-based and reflective practices.
Approach
While certain programs may offer instruction on culturally responsive science education, they fall short of effectively developing science teachers when they lack specific examples (Brown, 2014), instructional modeling, alignment to classroom/field experiences (Brown & Crippen, in press), ongoing support, and curriculum resources (Bianchini & Brenner, 2010; Brown, 2014). Our previous research indicates that even when scaffolding the lesson planning process for equitable teaching, science and mathematics teachers emphasize content over connections to students’ backgrounds (Brown & Crippen, in press). Though there is modest evidence that collaboration among science teachers during lesson planning can help foster equitable science instruction (Brown, 2014; Brown & Crippen, in press; Mensah, 2011), further research is required to understand the mechanisms through which science-specific culturally responsive instruction is created. This leads scholars to assert that beginning science teachers experience specific difficulties when attempting to teach for equity, including beginning instruction from students’ lives and implementing reform-based instruction (Bianchini & Brenner, 2010). Similarly, Lee and Buxton (2010) reported that beginning science teachers often exit their formal preparation programs without fundamentally altering their beliefs about diverse students. Hence, the difficulties encountered during formal teacher preparation programs continue into the first years of teaching, warranting an examination not only of which induction program elements successfully support and develop culturally responsive science teachers, but how such settings promote learning about equitable science teaching.
Despite small-scale examinations of programs aiming to develop equitable science teachers, there is no clear consensus on how to best accomplish this goal. Research has demonstrated that, in very specific contexts, the program elements mentioned above can produce equitable science teachers. What research has yet to determine, however, are the mechanisms or processes by which these activities promote cultural responsiveness. On this, speculation abounds but evidence is not clear. To design effective programs that support beginning science teachers’ development as equitable, culturally responsive educators, then, a focus on process and program structure is required. In other words, there must be an understanding of the process of becoming culturally responsive science teachers as well as the conditions under which this professional growth is facilitated and the reasons for this growth. Thus, PREPScI seeks to address this critical area of research by identifying mechanisms undergirding the development of equitable science teachers in our induction program.
