- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2150961
- First Name Vishodana
- Last Name Thamotharan
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline Chemistry, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics
- Role Principal Investigator (PI)
- Presenters
Vishodana Thamotharan and Eun Kyung Ko, National Louis University; Andrew Howard, Illinois Institute of Technology
Need
Serving as a teacher in a high needs school is an opportunity to disrupt curricular violence and reimagine education. While there is an abundance of literature on approaches to disrupt marginalizing practices (e.g social justice education, intersectional anti racist education, culturally responsive teaching etc), less is known about how to foster critical consciousness in pre-service teachers. This project explores how to develop critical consciousness in Noyce Scholars in order for them to engage in transformative citizenship through teaching.This project addresses two primary needs: 1) fostering authentic cross institutional partnerships to recruit Noyce Scholars; 2) fostering critical consciousness in Noyce Scholar such that they view teaching as a form of transformative civic action.
Research Questions
1. What Noyce and course activities are predictive of critical consciousness in Noyce Scholars? 2. How do Noyce Scholars culturally responsive teaching beliefs change throughout the Noyce program? 3. What are Noyce Scholars beliefs and dispositions when it comes to teaching racially and ethnically diverse students?
Approach
This project utilizes Friere’s (1970) Critical Consciousness and Bank’s (2017) Typology of Citizenship as the theoretical frameworks guiding the project. To measure Noyce Scholars’ beliefs, attitudes and practices related to teaching as transformative civic action, we utilize the following instruments: 1) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Scale (Siwatu, 2006); 2) 4-Factor Critical Consciousness Scale (Orsini et al., 2022) 3) SPLC’s Learning for Justice Common Beliefs Survey. The project team has been very intentional in incorporating specific learning experiences (i.e. interventions) throughout the Noyce experience to support Noyce Scholars beliefs, attitudes and practices. During the recruitment phase, project personnel provide stipends for prospective students to engage with students from high need schools, recruit student interns, teaching assistants and student mentors from the pre-college programs, explicitly ask prospective students about interest and experience in high needs schools, place students in high needs schools for all field experiences, and engage scholars in community exploration and asset mapping.
Outcomes
The first cohort of graduates is expected to be in June of 2025. Preliminary data from the evaluation team indicates that scholars, at time of selection, score high on the Culturally Responsive Teaching Self Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Scale. Additionally, most scholars have either personal experiences in high needs schools or have served in high need schools when applying to the Noyce Scholars program. Initial anecdotal data demonstrates that Noyce Scholars are unaware of historical marginalization of minoritized communities, a measure that the project team hypothesized to be indicative of critical consciousness. Upon completion of the program, the project team anticipates reporting findings related to scholars’ critical consciousness, elements of the program predictive of critical consciousness, scholars beliefs related to teaching racially diverse students, and scholars conceptualization of teaching as an act of transformative citizenship or civic action.
Broader Impacts
The findings from this project can inform both selection and preparation of teachers in high needs schools and beyond. Within National Louis University, Noyce specific activities will be incorporated into the broader teacher preparation program to foster all preservice teachers critical consciousness and to engage in teaching as transformative civic action.
