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1. Learning trajectories of teachers’ cultural competencies in teaching mathematics with robots in elementary school

   Coward, Chamarra A_O; Cheung, Marcus_Yuen-Yiu; Lyublinskaya, Irina (April 2025, AERA)

   This study employed a mixed methods research design to explore the influence of a year-long professional development (PD) on the 1st grade team of elementary school teachers' cultural competencies as they integrated culturally relevant robot coding activities into mathematics instruction. Culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy (CRMP) promotes academic success by fostering conceptual understanding, leveraging students' cultural knowledge, building social connections, and engaging mathematics from a social justice lens through the core elements of demand, relevance, and agency. The results indicate that the PD sessions improved some of teachers' cultural competencies, such as competency in modeling high expectations and in drawing on student culture. In addition, teachers consistently demonstrated strong cultural competencies in establishing supportive classroom norms, promoting inclusive environments, and recognizing student differences. The observed CRMP scores reflect teachers’ growth trends in the demand dimension of implemented mathematics tasks. However, they struggled implementing mathematics tasks that reflect authentic relevance and agency, even though all three core dimensions of CRMP were evident in the designed tasks. Teachers' self-reports indicated a shift toward more student-centered instruction, which is consistent with increased tasks’ demand. 

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2. Examining instructional planning and implementation in the context of an integrated computer science professional development for elementary teachers [Poster presentation]

   Nolte, A.; Mead, H.; Mouza, C.; Rolón-Dow, R.; Pollock, L. (January 2023, American Educational Research Association,)

   Elementary schools provide a natural entry point to computer science (CS) education, yet elementary teachers spend most of their instructional time in literacy and math. One way to bring CS in elementary schools is through integrated approaches. In this work we present a professional development (PD) program that helps elementary teachers integrate CS with content and culturally relevant pedagogy to create accessible CS instruction. Qualitative data were collected from five teachers who attended the year-long program. Findings indicate that all teachers fully integrated CS with content and culturally-relevant pedagogy; however, such integration focused mostly on literacy and closely paralleled what was presented in PD. Implications are drawn regarding the design of PD programs that help teachers integrate CS in elementary classrooms. 

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3. Using Engineering Design Tasks to Create Indigenous Cultural and Community Connections with the Classroom for Elementary and Middle School Students

   Bowman, F.; Klemetsrud, B.; Ozturk, E.; Robinson, J. (August 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Oftentimes engineering design tasks are thought of as acultural and devoid of community inclusion and values. However, engineering design is inherently a cultural endeavor. Problems needing engineering solutions or design thinking are situated in a specific community and need community solutions. This work in progress paper describes initial efforts from a project to help elementary and middle school teachers create culturally relevant engineering design tasks for implementation in their classrooms. To integrate best practices for culturally relevant pedagogy, the engineering design framework developed by UTeach Engineering was adapted to specifically address community needs and cultural values. Changes to the framework also include culturally relevant instructional strategies for classroom implementation. To situate the engineering design steps within a culturally relevant framework questions involving communities and students’ cultural needs, values, and expectations were posed in each stage of the design process. A water filtration engineering design task was situated in the cultural concept of “Mni Wiconi” (Water is life in the Dakota language). This was taught in a summer professional development workshop for a cohort of elementary and middle school teachers, in rural North Dakota, with school districts comprised of large Native American student populations. Teachers adapted this design task for their individual classrooms and content areas (science, math, social studies, ELA) and implemented it in their classrooms in the fall of 2021. Additional support for teachers was provided with fall workshop days aimed at helping them with the facilitation of a culturally relevant engineering task. To integrate culturally relevant teaching and good engineering design tasks, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s Native American Essential Understandings Teachings of our Elder’s website was used. This allowed teachers and students to have firsthand knowledge of how various science and engineering concepts are framed within the indigenous community. Professional development focused on how to situate culturally responsive teaching in engineering design. For example, in one of the school districts the water filtration task was related to increased pollution of a nearby lake which holds significant importance for the local Tribal Nation. In addition to being able to visibly witness the demand for cleaner water, the book “We are Water Protectors” written by Carole Lindstrom, was used to provide cultural grounding for the Identify and Describe stages of the engineering design framework. Case studies of how teachers incorporated the water filtration design task into their lesson plans are presented along with their suggestions on how to improve classroom implementation. Future work in the program includes teachers and their students developing engineering design tasks situated in their own communities and cultures. 

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4. Teacher Experiences in a Community-Based Rural Partnership: Recognizing Community Assets

   https://doi.org/10.7771/2157-9288.1316  

   Paradise, T.; Schilling, M.R.; Grohs, J.; Laney, J. (January 2022, Journal of precollege engineering education research)

   The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and university affiliates that is focused on implementing recurrent, hands-on, culturally relevant engineering activities for middle school students. This qualitative study uses constant comparative methodology informed by grounded theory on teacher interviews to capture both teacher experiences in the partnership as well as teacher-identified assets in their classrooms and school communities. Using the sensitizing concepts of pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, and the Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth, this study found that while teachers experienced the program differently depending on their contextual setting of their schools, all teachers expressed shifts in their recognition of and value placed on community assets. Findings also suggest that teachers greatly value involving industry and university partners in the classroom to highlight the applications of engineering in their communities and support a reimagination of engineering conceptions and careers for both students and teachers. Teachers reported that the hands-on, team-based, culturally relevant engineering activities engaged learners and showcased individual strengths in ways they otherwise do not see exhibited in their traditional curriculum. The partnership ultimately allowed teachers to identify how assets in schools’ rural communities, beyond those previously identified within their schools, could aid them in further developing and implementing engineering activities. With teachers serving as role models for students, it is important to support teachers’ reimagination of engineering conceptions and integration into the classroom to ultimately increase students’ engineering engagement. Our findings highlight the value of community-based approaches in supporting engineering integration in the classroom and describe the assets that teachers note as being the most significant in their community. 

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5. From superficial to foundational: Integrating cultural relevance into computer science curriculum (poster abstract)

   Nolte, A.; Codding, D.; Rolón-Dow, R.; Mouza, C.; Pollock, L. (January 2023, NARST)

   Female and racially minoritized groups continue to be underrepresented in computer science (CS) and STEM careers, despite ongoing efforts to diversify the field. One way to promote the success of minoritized students in CS education is to incorporate culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) into CS curriculum and instruction. This work explores the ways that teachers integrated CRP in their lesson plans after participating in CRP-focused professional development (PD) sessions delivered during a week-long PD aimed at improving and diversifying CS education. Our analysis of the lesson plans reveals that teachers integrated CRP at levels ranging from superficial to foundational. At the superficial level, teachers treated CRP as an “add-on” strategy with minimal relevance to the lesson content. At the foundational level, CRP was central to student mastery of core content learning. This work contributes to our understanding about how teachers approach the concept of relevance when integrating CRP in CS education. Findings have implications for approaches to PD design that support teachers in integrating CRP in CS education, as well as other STEM classrooms. 

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