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1. Textual Ecology, Collaborative Tasks, and Genre Systems: Using PDE to Teach STEM Career Awareness/Intent

   Philip J. Piety, PhD (January 2021, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   null (Ed.)

   The paper discusses the use of Productive Disciplinary Engagement (PDE) for a curricular project that features a technology-based alternate reality game (ARG) with the objective of teaching undergraduate students about the collaborative nature of STEM careers. Much of the PDE research uses PDE as either a design-principle or as an analytics lens. This project does both. Most of this extant research focuses on spoken discourse to teach disciplinary knowledge. This project uses workplace documentary texts that are embedded within a semester-long undergraduate course designed to teach students collaboration skills using the context of natural disasters. A range of texts are used in this design from didactic to disciplinary. Students learn about professional work through educational renditions of professional cultural historical activity systems. This paper focuses on design decisions and illustrates some ways that workplace documents can be used in education. 

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2. Participatory research in energy justice: guiding principles and practice

   https://doi.org/10.1088/2516-1083/ad3b60  

   Castro-Diaz, Laura; Nwadiaru, Ogechi Vivian; Roque, Anaís; Caverly, Nick; Kenner, Ali; Harper, Krista (June 2024, Progress in Energy)

   Abstract This perspective explores the imperative role of participatory research (PR) in advancing energy justice. We argue that using PR methods and principles at the intersection of energy and equity is a critical research advantage. Here, we contend that PR frameworks are integral to bridging the gap between energy justice theory and practice, emphasizing the need to move beyond decontextualized principles to address specific injustices related to race, class, gender, and coloniality. We present three energy justice case studies that used participatory approaches in diverse contexts: Amazon, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; and Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. These cases showcase the versatility of PR methods in understanding and addressing unique energy challenges within local communities. We highlight guiding principles of PR, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing community needs, respecting diverse expertise, building trust, designing for transparency and accountability, choosing appropriate methods, adapting and being flexible, and aiming for long-term collaboration. Lastly, our perspective suggests future directions for participatory energy justice research, including the potential for PR to inform multiscalar policy, practice, and advocacy. We underscore the importance of collaborations between university researchers and community organizations through citizen science, emphasizing the need for diverse disciplinary perspectives to effectively address complex energy justice challenges. 

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3. Finding Alignment in Framing: Dynamics of Collaborative Disciplinary Engagement in Science

   Krishnan, H.; Jaber, L. Z.; Schellinger, J.; & Southerland, S. A. (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   Recent educational reforms conceptualize science classrooms as spaces where students collaboratively engage in disciplinary practices to construct and evaluate scientific explanations of phenomena. For students to effectively collaborate with each other, they need to develop a shared framing of the nature of the science activity and the expectations surrounding their engagement in it. Such framing does not only pertain to the conceptual work but also involves myriad epistemological, social, and affective dimensions. We conceptualize collaborative disciplinary engagement as the process of aligning the group’s framing along these dimensions and, we argue, student negotiations to achieve this alignment are in part what initiate and sustain collaborative disciplinary engagement in the science classroom. By focusing on student negotiations, this study builds on existing research on group dynamics involved in science learning and contributes nuanced empirical insights on the nature of student negotiations along the conceptual, epistemological, social, and affective dimensions of argumentation in science. Moreover, the findings provide a proof of concept regarding the key role that student negotiations of framing have in driving collaborative disciplinary engagement. The study findings have implications for research and practice to support learners’ productive disciplinary engagement in group work in the science classroom and beyond. 

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4. Examining teenagers' spontaneous play in a STEM-based out-of-school time experience for refugee-background youth.

   Braden, S; Bamidele, B; Marx, S; Dotterer, A; Suganda, L; Goldrup, R; Nyawelo, T; Gonzalez, R; Gerton, J; Matthews, J (November 2023, ICLS/ISLS Repository (https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/9878))

   NA (Ed.)

   This linguistic anthropological case study examines one episode of play involving refugee-background teenagers participating in an informal STEM learning experience. This empirical case shows how the disciplinary practices of cosmic ray detector building were productively interwoven with spontaneous play directed by participating youth. The analysis reveals the need for a greater focus on play, which designers and researchers may initially dismiss as “off-task,” but may in fact be an important component of disciplinary practice. Furthermore, we call for attention to play as a potentially important feature of designing and researching culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSPs) with and for diverse learners in informal STEM learning contexts. 

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5. Scaling training to support scientists to engage with the public in non-traditional venues

   https://doi.org/10.22323/2.20040802  

   Weber, Caitlin; Allen, Sue; Nadkarni, Nalini (January 2021, Journal of Science Communication)

   Public engagement with science activities need to be extended beyond traditional learning venues (e.g., museums, schools) to increase public access. Scientists are motivated to carry out this work; however, it is difficult to scale up training to support the implementation of engagement activities in non-traditional venues. Such training would need to be applicable to different engagement contexts, while avoiding a “one size fits all” approach. We describe the guiding principles, challenges, and design choices of a training program in the United States to support scientists in designing and implementing audience-specific engagement activities in a range of non-traditional venues. 

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