- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1950260
- First Name Elaine
- Last Name Howes
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline Geosciences, Other:Teacher Education
- Role Principal Investigator (PI)
- Presenters
Elaine V. Howes and Jamie Wallace, Elizabeth Edmondson, Dominick Fantacone, Melanie Hopkins, Aimee Ellington, Sean Nolan
Need
The central goal of culturally responsive education (CRE) is to provide inclusive instruction for all students’ learning, especially those who have been historically denied robust academic opportunities (Banks, 2021; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Thus, it is crucial that preservice science teachers learn the fundamentals of CRE in order to choose and develop instructional approaches that are appropriate for and supportive of their students’ science learning. Course experiences are one avenue through which science teacher preparation programs seek to support preservice teachers’ learning to teach from a culturally responsive perspective. In this presentation, we will characterize the roles that course experiences play in three geographically dissimilar teacher education programs in their efforts to prepare their candidates for high-need settings. Culturally Responsive Teaching is designed to redress educational injustice (Howard, 2011). In this regard, we propose that CRE provides a route through which students who are traditionally shut out of the predominantly white field of science can thrive, and experience opportunities to engage with science in ways that mesh with and support cultural and community assets. In fact, science instruction that is culturally responsive has been shown to support the science learning of students from underrepresented communities (Bang et al., 2010; Kang, 2022). Therefore, to ground our study, we draw on the literature to describe what culturally responsive science teaching might look like in instruction. To aid our analysis, we have developed tenets based in this literature that describe culturally responsive instructional practices (Howes & Wallace, 2020; Wallace et al., 2022). These tenets help us to envision what culturally responsive science teaching might look like in classrooms, and thus provide some guidance for exploring the three programs’ course experiences. These tenets describe classrooms where teachers value what students bring to the classroom as assets and use these assets as resources for teaching and learning (Lopez, 2017; Moll et. al, 1992);draw upon students’ cultures to strengthen and sustain their cultural connections to them (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2017);hold high expectations for all students’ academic learning (Brown, 2019a; Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Lee, 2021) and adopt and support students in developing a critical stance toward sociopolitical structures and processes (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Mensah, 2019; Paris & Alim, 2017). We use these CRE tenets as part of our theoretical framework that informs our data collection and analysis. In this presentation, we are eliciting the roles that course experiences can play in supporting new science teachers in adopting these culturally responsive approaches. This study focuses on the roles that teacher education programs can play in helping preservice teachers learn about these fundamentals and implement them in their teaching. Preservice Science Teaching Courses: The responsibility of contemporary teacher education programs to educate preservice teachers to be responsive to the varied and changing populations of students they serve falls on all disciplines of teacher preparation, including science education (NASEM, 2020). In order to create equitable educational opportunities for all students, the preparation of culturally responsive teachers needs to be systematically woven throughout all aspects of teacher education programs; the inclusion of distinct diversity or multicultural courses alone is not sufficient (Carter Andrews, 2021; Kohli et al., 2021; Ladson-Billings, 2000). Research in the preparation of science teachers for culturally responsive education and other equity pedagogies is beginning to emerge (see, e.g., Brown et al., 2018; Boutte et al., 2010; Dodo Seriki, 2018; Rodriguez et al., 2019). However, the role of teacher education in preparing culturally responsive science educators remains under-examined (Kang, 2022). A promising approach to examining science teacher education programs may be found in the concept of context-specific teacher preparation. Matsko et al. (2022) and Matsko & Hammerness (2014) propose that context-specific teacher preparation can support candidates in developing localized knowledge and may support culturally responsive practices. Additionally, they argue, a focus on context-specific teacher education may also contribute to teachers’ commitment to teaching in their unique settings. Because the programs in this study represent three different geographical and cultural areas, investigating the roles that their courses play in the realm of preparing teachers for their particular contexts could add to this body of work.
Research Questions
The research question addressed in this poster is What roles do course experiences play in preparing teachers for culturally responsive science teaching in high-need schools in three teacher preparation programs? Our analysis of culturally responsive education in teacher preparation is supported by a framework that is structured in part by four common components of teacher preparation programs: 1) recruitment (Berry et al., 2008; Guha et al., 2016); 2) course experiences (Matsko & Hammerness, 2014); 3) practice teaching/residency (Feiman-Nemser et al., 2014), and 4) induction programs and other supports after graduation (Ronfeldt & McQueen, 2017). These components appear in various forms in different programs, but we have found that each plays multiple roles in preparing new teachers (Wallace et al., 2024). For this Summit, we will present our analysis of the relationships between the component of course experiences and culturally responsive science teaching as evident in each program, respectively. This approach helps us to illuminate the roles that this program component can play in preparing culturally responsive science teachers. At this point, we are not comparing the programs, but exploring and describing them. In the final year of this study, we will create cross-case studies that will help us to more clearly see the roles that pertain across the programs, and those that are unique to each.In this paper, we present summaries of three science teacher preparation programs’ case studies in order to explore the roles that they play in preparing culturally responsive science teachers.
Approach
While there is some variation in the details of data collection and analysis, the three programs’ researchers adhere to general research principles and approaches. Specifically, program researchers are exploring the same research questions, and using a qualitative case study methodology (Yin, 2014) that utilizes multiple data sources, including interviews, surveys, documents, and analytical memos. Data sources across the programs include interviews with faculty, recent graduates, and mentor teachers, supported by program documents. These multiple data sources provide insight into the roles that course experiences can play in supporting novice teachers in learning about culturally responsive science teaching. We applied a thematic analysis approach, conducted multiple rounds of coding of interview transcripts, and used a document analysis protocol that we developed for recruitment materials, applications, and course syllabi. We are also committed to a culturally responsive research approach throughout this study, in that we view practicing teachers and their expertise as essential to learning about teaching; strive for transparency and equity (Rodriguez et al., 2011; Trainor et al., 2014); and incorporate multiple perspectives through the inclusion of stakeholders’ voices. Additionally, we created a new researcher role for this study: That of the research team teacher (RTT) (Howes & Wallace, 2022). RTTs are graduates of our programs who are currently teaching science, largely in high-need schools. The RTTs are involved in and inform all aspects of the study, from protocol development, through data collection and analysis, and finally, in providing feedback, ideas, and text for the case-study writing (Howes, Wallace, & Edmondson, 2022; Gjelaj et al., 2022; Piscopo et al., 2022).
Outcomes
In this presentation, we will share our findings from the three Noyce-funded teacher preparation programs in this study: Hickamore, Green Hills, and SouthEast (pseudonyms). Through these findings, we will share what we have found concerning the roles that course experiences can play in preparing culturally responsive science teachers and explicate each of these roles supported with evidence from our analysis.Hickamore Science Teacher Preparation ProgramHickamore is an urban graduate-level teacher residency program that prepares and certifies middle and high school teachers in Earth science in the northeast region of the United States. Hickamore is affiliated with an informal science institution (ISI), and partners with high-need public schools in two districts. In this program case study, findings are presented through three themes that emerged in our analysis regarding the roles that courses played in the preparation of culturally responsive science teachers. Our analysis suggests that courses in this program provided opportunities for PSTs to wrestle with issues surrounding race, privilege, inequities, and identity; supported learning about and practicing making cultural connections as relating to students’ lives; and used place-based approaches as entryways into CRST. Green Hills Science Teacher Preparation ProgramGreen Hills is a teacher preparation program that is part of a large public state university located in a rural and suburban area. While multiple faculty stated that they were in the early days of incorporating culturally responsive education into their courses, the analysis resulted in themes within which participants stated that culturally responsive education was present, sometimes implicitly. Emerging themes suggest that course experiences provided opportunities for preservice students to learn about establishing a classroom environment that is comfortable for all learners, adjusting communicating about science for respective audiences, and plan curriculum that recognize students’ needs and assets. SouthEast Science Teacher Preparation Program: The SouthEast Teacher Preparation Program is based in a public university located in a large urban center in the southeast of the United States. As an urban institution, SouthEast has a commitment to preparing teacher candidates for diverse classrooms through culturally relevant teaching methodologies. Preparing its graduates to be attentive to students’ assets, and to use these to make connections between their teaching and students’ cultures, appears to be a strong thread throughout these data. Initial themes that emerged through course experiences were preparing culturally responsive preservice teachers through foundational readings on culturally responsive education, helping preservice teachers develop dispositions to value and build on students’ cultural and language assets, and supporting preservice teachers in delving into what it means and what it looks like to hold high expectations for their own students.
Broader Impacts
Good teachers make a difference in students’ learning, but students in high-need settings have fewer qualified and committed teachers than students in financially privileged settings (Cardichon et al., 2020; Podolsky et al., 2016). Teacher education programs play multiple roles in preparing effective teachers; this study examines particularly the preparation of culturally responsive science teachers. Our analysis illuminates efforts that three programs are pursuing through the course experiences they provide for their preservice teachers, and analyzes these efforts using the construct of “roles” that course experiences can play in preparation. The roles for course experiences in preparing culturally responsive educators, as we have described them in this study, can inform other programs and teacher educators’ thinking as they continue to develop their programs in this regard. Course experiences are central to teacher preparation programs, and exploring what roles they play in preparing culturally responsive science teachers can support our learning about how science teacher education can prepare teachers to teach all students well. Our Noyce colleagues may benefit from considering how their own programs fulfill these roles, or describing other roles their programs might include. The concept of “roles” itself could support discussion of the development of programs’ implementations of course experiences for culturally responsive science teachers. In this, we are not being prescriptive, but initiating a conversation. Next Steps: The next step for the program case studies is to develop a cross case study. In the cross case study, we will explore the roles of each of the program components (e.g., recruitment, course experiences, practice teaching/residency, supports after graduation) in each of the three program case studies. We will also delve into which roles are common across the programs, which are unique, and what this could mean for other teacher preparation programs working to prepare culturally responsive science teachers. Additionally, we are currently in the midst of collecting data for developing a set of teacher case studies on graduates from the programs under study. We will observe, over time, the science teaching of graduates of each of the three partner programs. The data gained through these classroom observations will be accompanied by interviews with the participating teachers, their students, and their administrators. This aspect of the study will result in multiple case studies of teachers who are working to implement culturally responsive science teaching in their classrooms, and thus result in images of what this might look like in science, as well as the perspectives, successes, and concerns of practicing science teachers in high-need settings. Finally, we will also develop a cross-case analysis of the teacher case studies and share with the Noyce community and more broadly.
