- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2050650
- First Name Nicole
- Last Name Miller
- Institution University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Role/Position Master Teaching Fellow
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category NA: I am a Scholar/Fellow
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry
- Target Audience Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
- Additional Presenter(s)
Alison Klein, aliklein@kearneycats.com
Goals
Session attendees will learn and discuss: 1. The importance of understanding how, as a theoretical context, cultural capital interacts with learning and ways of knowing (with explicit connections to Frameworks, NGSS, and ACESSE). 2. Examples of cultural capital, ways of knowing, and building a science identity. 3. Guided analysis of case studies from Appendix D in NGSS. We will identify cultural groups, cultural capital, and ways of knowing in teachers’ own personal and/or teaching experience.
Evidence
The ACESSE Project (https://sites.google.com/view/acesseproject/home) provides a framework that considers the intersectional nature of providing equitable science and engineering learning experiences. A Framework for K-12 Science Education (chapter 11) emphasizes the importance of equity and diversity in science and engineering education. For science learning to truly be accessible to all learners, teachers must find ways to connect classroom learning and science concepts with students’ identities and lived experiences. (https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/13165/chapter/16) Appendix D of the NGSS calls for “All Standards, All Students,” and emphasizes the importance of considering both learning opportunities and challenges which can help or hinder students’ science identity development. Case Studies provide in depth and real life examples. (https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/Appendix%20D%20Diversity%20and%20Equity%206-14-13.pdfhttps://www.nextgenscience.org/appendix-d-case-studies) Additionally, AAAS’ Project 2061 and its focus on scientific literacy provides a clear pathway to vertical alignment of K-12 science learning progressions for all students.
Proposal
In today’s increasingly diverse classrooms, many students do not feel included, seen or valued. With a population of teachers who are not as diverse as their students, many may struggle with how to meaningfully bridge this gap and support students in developing a strong science identity. Specifically, teachers are challenged to develop skills and strategies that address these concerns. The purpose of this session will be to discuss how to build classroom spaces and communities that investigate, value, and purposefully use students’ cultural capital and ways of knowing. This is especially true for students from historically marginalized groups who struggle to see themselves represented in science classrooms and career fields. Session attendees will learn about the importance of building cultural capital in science education in ways that attend to the intersectional identities of the students in our classrooms. We will investigate specific examples (i.e., case studies) of recognizing, valuing, and implementing culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogical practices in the science classroom. We will use the NGSS Case Studies from Appendix D to explore, suggest, and review strategies for building science identities in the classroom such as building on students’ background knowledge, integrating community involvement and social activism, literacy and discourse strategies, home culture connections, and project-based learning.
