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1. The school stakeholder community as a source of capital for the talent development of black students in a high school engineering career academy

   https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-11-2021-0195  

   Fletcher, Edward C.; Hines, Erik M.; Ford, Donna Y.; Grantham, Tarek C.; Moore III, James L. (August 2022, European Journal of Training and Development)

   Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of school stakeholders (e.g. advisory board members, school administrators, parents, teachers and school board members) at a 99% black academy in promoting the achievement and broadening participation of high school black students in engineering career pathways. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed a qualitative case study design to explore the experiences of school stakeholders (e.g. students, district and school personnel and community partners) associated with the implementation of the career academy (Stake, 2006; Yin, 1994). Findings The authors found that the school relied heavily on the support of the community in the form of an advisory board – including university faculty and industry leaders – to actively develop culturally responsive strategies (e.g. American College Test preparation, work-based learning opportunities) to ensure the success of black students interested in pursuing career pathways in engineering. Thus, school stakeholders in the academy of engineering served as authentic leaders who inspired academy students by serving as role models and setting examples through what they do as engineering professionals. It was quite evident that the joy and fulfillment that these authentic leaders gained from using their talents directly or indirectly inspired students in the academy to seek out and cultivate the talents they are good at and passionate about as well (Debebe, 2017). Moreover, the career academy provided environmental or sociocultural conditions that promoted the development of learners’ gifts and talents (Plucker and Barab, 2005). Within that context, the goals of career academy school stakeholders were to support students in the discovery of what they are good at doing and to structure their educational experiences to cultivate their gifts into talents. Research limitations/implications It is also important to acknowledge that this study is not generalizable to the one million career academy students across the nation. Yet, the authors believe researchers should continue to examine the career academy advisory board as a source of capital for engaging and preparing diverse learners for success post-high school. Further research is needed to investigate how advisory boards support students’ in school and postsecondary outcomes, particularly for diverse students. Practical implications The authors highlight promising practices for schools to implement in establishing a diverse talent pipeline. Social implications On a theoretical level, the authors found important insights into the possibility of black students benefiting from a culturally responsive advisory board that provided social and cultural capital (e.g. aspirational, navigational and social) resources for their success. Originality/value While prior researchers have studied the positive impact of teachers in career academies as a contributor to social capital for students (Lanford and Maruco, 2019) and what diverse students bring to the classroom as a form of capital Debebe(Yosso, 2005), research has not identified the role of the advisory board (in its efforts to connect the broader community) as a vehicle for equipping ethnically and racially diverse students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds with social capital. Within that sense, the authors believe the advisory board at Stanton Academy relied on what the authors term local community capital to provide resources and supports for black students’ successful transition from high school into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related college and career pathways. 

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2. 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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3. Defining Rural: Rural Teachers’ Perspectives and Experiences

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060645  

   Inouye, Martha; Macias, Meghan; Boz, Tugba; Lee, Min Jung; Hammack, Rebekah; Iveland, Ashley; Johansen, Natalie (June 2024, Education Sciences)

   Public agencies and other funding organizations have often defined rural in reference to “urban” and using parameters such as population density, access to cities, and distance to market areas. Using such definitions of rurality within the context of K-12 education as a way to support these systems is challenging because of the diverse geographic and socio-cultural identities of these places despite a common “rural” designation. This study aims to analyze elementary teachers’ perceptions of their school context and role within that context to better understand the diversity of what it means to be rural. Semi-structured interviews with 3rd–5th-grade teachers (n = 35) were used. Data sources also included identity and community walk slides created by these teachers. Structured interview prompts were tailored to these activities. A priori and emergent coding analyses were used to examine teachers’ conception of their rural context and their role within that context. The results show that rural, as defined by teachers, is a diverse and connected place in which diverse community assets support teachers in their instruction in unique ways. By better understanding the diversity of what it means to be rural, we begin to understand the ways in which context shapes experience and best determine how to support rural educational experiences for both teachers and students. 

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4. Understanding the ‘us all’ in Engineering 4 Us All through the Experiences of High School Teachers

   Berhane, B.; Dalal, M.; Klein-Gardner, S.; Carberry, A.; Reid, K.; Beauchamp, C.; Kouo, J.; Pines, D. (January 2021, 3rd annual CoNECD – The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   As our nation’s need for engineering professionals grows, a sharp rise in P-12 engineering education programs and related research has taken place (Brophy, Klein, Portsmore, & Rogers, 2008; Purzer, Strobel, & Cardella, 2014). The associated research has focused primarily on students’ perceptions and motivations, teachers’ beliefs and knowledge, and curricula and program success. The existing research has expanded our understanding of new K-12 engineering curriculum development and teacher professional development efforts, but empirical data remain scarce on how racial and ethnic diversity of student population influences teaching methods, course content, and overall teachers’ experiences. In particular, Hynes et al. (2017) note in their systematic review of P-12 research that little attention has been paid to teachers’ experiences with respect to racially and ethnically diverse engineering classrooms. The growing attention and resources being committed to diversity and inclusion issues (Lichtenstein, Chen, Smith, & Maldonado, 2014; McKenna, Dalal, Anderson, & Ta, 2018; NRC, 2009) underscore the importance of understanding teachers’ experiences with complementary research-based recommendations for how to implement engineering curricula in racially diverse schools to engage all students. Our work examines the experiences of three high school teachers as they teach an introductory engineering course in geographically and distinctly different racially diverse schools across the nation. The study is situated in the context of a new high school level engineering education initiative called Engineering for Us All (E4USA). The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded initiative was launched in 2018 as a partnership among five universities across the nation to ‘demystify’ engineering for high school students and teachers. The program aims to create an all-inclusive high school level engineering course(s), a professional development platform, and a learning community to support student pathways to higher education institutions. An introductory engineering course was developed and professional development was provided to nine high school teachers to instruct and assess engineering learning during the first year of the project. This study investigates participating teachers’ implementation of the course in high schools across the nation to understand the extent to which their experiences vary as a function of student demographic (race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) and resource level of the school itself. Analysis of these experiences was undertaken using a collective case-study approach (Creswell, 2013) involving in-depth analysis of a limited number of cases “to focus on fewer "subjects," but more "variables" within each subject” (Campbell & Ahrens, 1998, p. 541). This study will document distinct experiences of high school teachers as they teach the E4USA curriculum. Participants were purposively sampled for the cases in order to gather an information-rich data set (Creswell, 2013). The study focuses on three of the nine teachers participating in the first cohort to implement the E4USA curriculum. Teachers were purposefully selected because of the demographic makeup of their students. The participating teachers teach in Arizona, Maryland and Tennessee with predominantly Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian student bodies, respectively. To better understand similarities and differences among teaching experiences of these teachers, a rich data set is collected consisting of: 1) semi-structured interviews with teachers at multiple stages during the academic year, 2) reflective journal entries shared by the teachers, and 3) multiple observations of classrooms. The interview data will be analyzed with an inductive approach outlined by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014). All teachers’ interview transcripts will be coded together to identify common themes across participants. Participants’ reflections will be analyzed similarly, seeking to characterize their experiences. Observation notes will be used to triangulate the findings. Descriptions for each case will be written emphasizing the aspects that relate to the identified themes. Finally, we will look for commonalities and differences across cases. The results section will describe the cases at the individual participant level followed by a cross-case analysis. This study takes into consideration how high school teachers’ experiences could be an important tool to gain insight into engineering education problems at the P-12 level. Each case will provide insights into how student body diversity impacts teachers’ pedagogy and experiences. The cases illustrate “multiple truths” (Arghode, 2012) with regard to high school level engineering teaching and embody diversity from the perspective of high school teachers. We will highlight themes across cases in the context of frameworks that represent teacher experience conceptualizing race, ethnicity, and diversity of students. We will also present salient features from each case that connect to potential recommendations for advancing P-12 engineering education efforts. These findings will impact how diversity support is practiced at the high school level and will demonstrate specific novel curricular and pedagogical approaches in engineering education to advance P-12 mentoring efforts. 

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5. Examining Science Teachers’ Conceptions of Student Interest as a Consideration in Designing Assessments

   https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2024.2435747  

   Penuel, William R; O’Connor, Keelin; Allen, Anna-Ruth; Jacobs, Jennifer K; Lo, Abraham S (December 2024, Journal of Science Teacher Education)

   A key goal of science education articulated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education is to create opportunities for students to answer questions about the world that connect to their interests, experiences, and identities. Interest can be seen as a malleable relationship between a person and object (such a phenomenon students might study). In this paper, we analyzed data from a design study of an online course focused on preparing 11 secondary teachers to design three-dimensional tasks that align to the Next Generation Science Standards and that connect to students’ interests. Our data sources were teachers’ descriptions of their design decisions about what phenomena to use to anchor assessment, designed assessment tasks, and interviews with them about those decisions. We found that interest was an important consideration for assessment design, but they considered student interests in different ways. Some teachers shifted their views of what it meant to engage student interests in the context of assessment design over the course of their participation in professional learning. Most teachers made decisions about what they believed their students were interested in based on their knowledge of students or beliefs about their students’ interests. In supporting teachers to design summative assessments that link to students’ interest, it is critical to assume teachers bring a range of conceptions of interest, and to consider the feasibility and utility of task design tools from teachers’ point of view. 

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