- Year 2023
- NSF Noyce Award # 2149370
- First Name Akhtar
- Last Name Mahmood
- Discipline Chemistry, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, STEM Education (general)
- Co-PI(s)
Kristin Cook and Jessica Ivy, Bellarmine University; Marlisa Austin, Jefferson Technical and Community College
- Presenters
Akhtar Mahmood
Need
K-12 students are more diverse today. Over the past few decades, student demographics, their experiences, backgrounds have changed. There is a deep demographic gap between K-12 teachers and students. About 85% of teachers who teach K-12 students of varying races, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and cultural backgrounds are Caucasian. Hence, new STEM teachers need preparedness in culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and understanding of diverse cultural perspectives. According to the Department of Education, an increasing proportion of students of color come from homes that are culturally and linguistically diverse. The state of Kentucky now requires new certified teachers to understand individual differences and ethnically diverse cultures and communities. Since the K-12 student population is increasingly becoming culturally and ethnically diverse, we need to ensure that our Noyce scholars can adapt to a culturally responsive teaching style in their classrooms in high-need schools and be conversant in teaching across cultural boundaries. In our Noyce Track-1 project, we have partnered with the high-need Jefferson Country Public Schools (JCPS) district, which is the largest school district in Kentucky and the 29th largest school district in the nation. JCPS student population is culturally and racially diverse; over 125 languages are spoken by JCPS students, hence the need for culturally responsive teachers to reflect the increasingly culturally diverse students.
Goals
Over the past few decades, student demographics, their experiences, and cultural backgrounds and diversity in public school’s classrooms have changed, nationwide. Hence, new STEM teachers need preparedness in culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and understanding of diverse cultural perspectives. Preparing culturally responsive teachers involves transforming preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes and increasing their culturally diverse knowledge base. One of the goals of our Noyce Track-1 project is to provide Noyce scholars adequate knowledge of culturally relevant pedagogy for effective culturally competent instruction and can adapt to a culturally responsive teaching style in their classrooms and be conversant in teaching across cultural boundaries to students from diverse backgrounds in high-need schools.
Approach
To develop the cultural competence and disposition needed to successfully teach in high-need schools, Noyce scholars will be trained in CRT by actively participating in – (1) four CRT focused seminars and workshops for each cohort year, conducted by culturally and racially diverse speakers and in-service teachers with expertise in CRT. The CRT seminars, workshops, and internships will also focus on case study inquiry of Noyce scholars’ own teaching questions on CRT and emphasis will be placed on developing cultural competence to gain deeper awareness and insights of issues affecting STEM learning with culturally diverse backgrounds; (2) a professional development internship that will be conducted at the University of Kentucky focusing on CRT practices and CRT fields reflections, including induction; and (3) Pre-service field experiences in their MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) teacher certification degree program will allow Noyce scholars to observe, explore, appreciate and reflect upon diversity among learners while making accommodations for differing needs and CRT in diverse classrooms which will provide cultural competencies with exposure to the educational needs of diverse and underserved students. Additionally, topics in culturally responsive pedagogy and disposition is covered in the required MAT 596 Teaching Science in Middle School and MAT 598 Teaching Secondary Science or MAT 580 Teaching Mathematics in Middle School and MAT 582 Teaching Secondary Mathematics courses, where lecture sessions include a required diversity component, including making accommodations for learner needs, CRT, and strategies to address the achievement gap. When integrated into classroom instruction, CRT strategies could strengthen Noyce scholars’ sense of identity and promote classroom equity and inclusivity.
In our Noyce Track-1 project, each Noyce scholar are required to take both the T-STEM (Teacher Efficacy and Attitudes Toward STEM) and CoBRAS (Color-Blind Racial Attitude Scales) surveys each semester during their two years as Noyce Scholars. The T-STEM surveys focuses on Teaching Efficacy & Beliefs, 21st Century Skills, Teacher Leadership Attitudes, Teaching Outcome Expectancy, and Career Awareness. Results from the CoBRAS survey will help us to measure unawareness of racial privilege, institutional discrimination, and racial issues. Additionally, we will assess and evaluate the self-efficacy of our Noyce scholars in CRT and determine how efficacious they are in executing CRT practices by using Siwatu’s CRT Self-Efficacy Scale, CRT Outcome Expectations Scale, and Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale. We will examine, assesses and evaluate Noyce scholars’ CRT self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs, which will provide data to explore the psychometric properties of CRT self-efficacy and to predict whether our Noyce scholars can effectively implement the CRT practices in high-need schools after their certification.
Outcomes
The survey results were used to assess Noyce scholars’ needs and perspectives regarding culturally relevant teaching(CRT). An analysis of these data will highlight the Noyce scholars’ knowledge of culturally relevant pedagogy so that they can provide effective culturally competent instruction to students from diverse backgrounds in high-need schools. The T-STEM survey uses a five-point Likert scale to represent level of agreement (1-Strongly Disagree to 5-Strongly Agree) that includes statements about various elements of self-efficacy for teaching math and science. The T-STEM: Mathematics Teaching Efficacy & Beliefs survey was administered in Fall 2022, the overall mean score for the cohort 1 Noyce scholars was 3.9. A mean of 3.9 signifies that the cohort 1 Noyce scholars have moderate to high math teaching self-efficacy. The T-STEM: Science Teaching Efficacy & Beliefs and survey was administered in Fall 2022, the overall mean score for the cohort 1 Noyce scholars was 3.7. A mean of 3.7 signifies that the cohort 1 Noyce scholars have moderate science teaching self-efficacy. The T-STEM: 21st Century Skills survey was administered in Fall 2022. The Science and Math Noyce scholars received overall means of 4.70 and 4.41, respectively. The mean score indicates that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have positive perceptions of their 21st century skills. The science Noyce scholars have slightly more positive perceptions than the math Noyce scholar. The Science and Math Noyce scholars received overall means of 4.70 and 4.41, respectively. The survey results indicate that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have positive perceptions of their 21st century skills, with science Noyce scholars having slightly more positive perceptions than math Noyce scholar. The T-STEM: Teacher Leadership Attitudes survey was administered in Fall 2022. The Science and Math scholars in cohort 1 received overall means of 4.94 and 4.33, respectively. The survey results indicate that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have positive perceptions of their leadership skills, with science students having slightly more positive perceptions than math students. The T-STEM: Math Teaching Outcome Expectancy survey was administered in Fall 2022. Cohort 1 Noyce scholars received an overall mean of 3.89. The findings from the T-STEM: Math Teaching Outcome Expectancy survey will serve as a baseline to compare with over time to track and identify changes amongst Noyce scholars. The survey results indicate that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have moderate to slightly positive expectations regarding the outcomes of effective teaching. The T-STEM: Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy survey was administered in Fall 2022. Cohort 1 Noyce scholars received an overall mean of 4.26. The findings from the T-STEM: Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy survey will serve as a baseline to compare with over time to track and identify changes amongst Noyce scholars. The survey results indicate that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have positive expectations regarding the outcomes of effective teaching. The T-STEM: Career Awareness survey was administered in Fall 2022. The Science and Math scholars in cohort 1 received overall means of 2.8 and 3.5, respectively. The survey results indicate that cohort 1 Noyce scholars have moderate to low STEM career awareness. The CoBRAS (Color-Blind Racial Attitude Scales) surveys was administered in Fall 2022. Results from the CoBRAS will be used to increase the understanding of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in high-need schools so that 100% of Noyce scholars will gain efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs in CRT as measured by CRT scales by participating in CRT seminars and workshops. CoBRAS measures unawareness of racial privilege, institutional discrimination, and blatant racial issues. The CoBRAS uses a six-point Likert Scale to represent level of agreement with each statement. This scale uses a three-factor analysis. Higher scores show greater levels of “blindness,” denial, or unawareness. The findings/results from the CoBRAS survey will serve as a baseline to compare with over time to track and identify changes amongst the Noyce scholars. The survey results will be used to assess Noyce scholars’ CRT needs and perspectives. Factor 1 measures Unawareness of Racial Privilege. Overall, the cohort 1 Noyce scholars’ mean score for Factor 1 is 2.6, that indicates a fairly high level of awareness. Factor 2 of CoBRAS survey measures Unawareness of Institutional Discrimination. Overall, the cohort 1 Noyce scholars’ mean score for Factor 2 is 2.2, that indicates a fairly high level of awareness. Factor 3 of CoBRAS survey measures Unawareness of Blatant Racial Issues. Overall, the cohort 1 Noyce scholars’ mean score for Factor 2 is 2.0, that indicates a fairly high level of awareness.
Broader Impacts
Culturally and ethnically diverse students will benefit from having highly qualified Noyce teachers who can apply culturally responsive teaching style and teach across cultural boundaries to students in high needs schools. Project activities will provide Noyce scholars with the cultural competence, pedagogical knowledge and skills, and disposition to become well-prepared culturally-responsive 6-12 STEM teachers who will deliver high quality education in the STEM disciplines with an understanding of diverse cultural perspectives, which will broaden the participation of underrepresented STEM students in high-need public schools. The project’s results will add to the growing body of knowledge and best practices in 6-12 STEM teacher education and preparation relevant to CRT which will be disseminated at conferences and through peer-reviewed professional journals. The data will inform future programmatic support and provide ideas for other researchers and practitioners in similar endeavors.
