- Year 2019
- NSF Noyce Award # 1852889
- First Name Natalie
- Last Name King
- Institution Georgia State University
- Role/Position Co-PI, Developing STEM Passionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders
- Workshop Category Track 2: Teaching Fellowships
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Biological
- Target Audience Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, School and District Administrators, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Preparing Teachers for High-Need School Districts
- Session Length 45 minutes
- Additional Presenter(s)
Christine Thomas, cthomas11@gsu.edu, Georgia State University, Principal Investigator – Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders
Goals
Participants will learn how to:
1) Create positive classroom communities in challenging climates
2) Maximize instructional time while minimizing distractions
3) Collaborate with community entities to promote STEM engagement
Evidence
Science and mathematics teacher educators nationwide are being faced with the challenge of how to effectively prepare pre-service teachers to not only enter into the teaching profession, but to remain. Unfortunately, this crisis is not new, particularly as it relates to secondary science and mathematics educators where qualified individuals often seek employment in non-teaching positions, change careers, and leave the profession due to job dissatisfaction, personal reasons, or retirement (Ingersoll, 2001; Moin, Dorfield, & Schunn, 2005; Shymansky & Aldridge, 1982; Sutcher, Darling-Hammond & Carver-Thomas, 2016). School factors that often contribute to teachers leaving the profession are unrealistic expectations from administrators, inadequate resources, difficulty managing the classroom, out-of-field teaching assignments, and unpreparedness to teach assigned science and mathematics content (Nehmeh & Kelly, 2018). School districts in low-income urban environments disproportionately shoulder many of these challenges leading to increased teacher attrition rates (Howard, 2003; Rinke, 2009). Many schools in urban contexts have higher proportions of Black/Latinx students, who face a unique challenge of having a cultural mismatch between their lived experiences at home, and the White middle class normative culture that exists in their formal schools (Parsons, 2008).
Proposal
The relatively homogeneous and static demographic of the teaching workforce does not adequately reflect the dynamism and racial and ethnic diversity of U.S. students (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2007; US Department of Education, 2016). Notably, research suggests that many teachers often underestimate the potential of students of color to excel in the STEM disciplines (Brickhouse, Lowery, & Schultz, 2000). These negative perceptions have a tendency to discourage students from realizing their true potentials and perceiving themselves as STEM talent. Furthermore, Black/Latinx students in urban settings often experience cultural and historical mistrust in educational settings and are disconnected from the science curriculum that ignores their funds of knowledge (Kane, 2012; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; NSF, 2017). Although researchers have analyzed various challenges and strategies to decrease the impact of these resisting factors, increasing teachers’ capacity to create equitable STEM learning spaces within urban settings continues to remain a challenge (Coffey and Farinde-Wu, 2006; Fraser-Abder, Atwater, and Lee, 2006; Kokka, 2016). The aforementioned realities reify the need for STEM teacher educators to explore innovative ways to prepare and develop culturally competent STEM teachers who can thrive even in the most challenging working conditions. In this workshop, we will engage attendees in effective strategies and best practices for STEM teachers to create and maintain positive classroom communities. Through role-playing and interactive activities, attendees will learn how to engage the local community in their quest to create spaces that are conducive for learning.
