- Year 2022
- NSF Noyce Award # 2050397
- First Name Chrissy
- Last Name Cross
- Institution Stephen F. Austin State University
- Role/Position Co-PI, Associate Professor
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Education Research
- Target Audience Evaluators/Education Researchers
- Topics Sustainable Program Management: Research/Assessment and/or Evaluation
- Session Length 45 minutes minutes
- Additional Presenter(s)
Amber Wagnon (aewagnon@sfasu.edu) & Keith Hubbard (hubbardke@sfasu.edu)
Goals
1. Participants will be able to see some methods of designing qualitative research can look like for Noyce Scholarship Project in rural schools2. Participants will be able to see which data sources we have used to gather data for our Noyce Project and will be asked to think through their own project research questions in order to ensure their research design will best to gather the information they need.3. Participants will be able to see some options for data collection and organization for Noyce grant research.
Evidence
The Noyce Scholarship program at SFASU has been collecting, organizing and publishing research findings based on mixed methods and qualitative research designs since 2014. Eight years of experience, overcoming challenges and facing new challenges has provided us with rich and in depth perspective on how data collection for Noyce projects in rural areas works and the specific challenges that can arise from being in a rural area. Some of these issues include, inaccessibility of rural districts, poor internet in rural districts, significant travel time for Noyce scholars/co-PI’s/mentor teachers to get quality data or participant in research activities, holes in data collection, small data sets, and unique challenges for rural teachers. Theoretical framework: Our theoretical framework for the Noyce Project is based on the idea that qualitative research methodologies (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Denzin & Lincoln, 1994) and naturalistic inquiry (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, Allen, 1994) are the best fit for the undergraduate teacher education setting, where a teacher is evolving from student to teacher through an experiential learning environment (Dewey, 1938; Piaget, 1972). Our STEM pre-service teachers move through complex stages and phenomenon that allow multiple paradigm shifts during the undergraduate teacher education experience and through the first five years in the classroom, as they move from student role to a teacher role. A qualitative research design helps us capture the complexity and dynamic stasis of this evolution. Here is a list of selected publications based on the qualitative data collected in our rural area from our Noyce Project: Cross PhD, C., Hubbard, K., Gravatt, D. A., & Beverly, L. (2021). STEM major perceptions and persistence to teacher certification. Journal of STEM Teacher Education, 56(2), 3.Wagnon, A.E., Hubbard, K.E., Cross, C.J. (2020), The Impact of the Robert Noyce Mentoring Program in Increased Teaching Effectiveness Among Teacher Candidate. The Texas Forum of Teacher Education, Vol. 10, pp. 51-60.
Proposal
Eight years of qualitative data design and collection within a rural area of Texas, to determine how undergraduate STEM pre-service teachers grow and evolve into effective rural STEM teachers has provided a unique and challenging experience. Throughout this journey, we have found what works best for us within our research design, data collection, and data organization. In this session we will share some of our strategies and ideas in hopes that other Noyce projects in rural areas can benefit from our experiences, challenges, and success stories.
