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There is limited time for elementary teacher professional learning in science in order to meet the aspirational goals of current reform efforts. In this study, we investigated what and how teachers learn on-the-job to gain insight into modes of support less often included in teacher education design. Specifically, we studied elementary teachers’ participation in a system-level organizational routine: curriculum materials adoption processes(CMAPs).Using a communities of practice framework, we explored teacher learning in a comparative case study of three U.S.school districts’ CMAP routines, observingCMAP committee meetings and interviewing participants about their expeirences. We found that what teachers learned varied across each district’s CMAP. We argue this variation can be traced to two CMAP features:(1) teachers’ use of boundary objects and (2) their boundary spanning roles and structures. Results have implications for the design of educational systems’ organizational routines to more intentionally serve a dual role as a professional learning opportunity. 

Reforming instruction is challenging. In this comparative case study of 12 school districts, we investigated the dilemmas that emerged for system leaders as they engaged in system building for elementary science and the approaches leaders took in managing them. We found that system leaders’ efforts to manage their environments contributed to the preferential treatment of literacy and mathematics relative to science. Leaders managed this dilemma using three strategies: (a) integration of science with other subjects, (b) specialization of teachers, and (c) adopting curriculum materials. This study contributes to literature on dilemma management by showing that dilemmas in education system building are school-subject sensitive, emerge in relation to system building for other subjects, and are embedded in school and education systems’ structural/organizational arrangements. 

Purpose: Most empirical work using a distributed perspective to frame research on leadership practice uses the school as the unit of analysis, focusing on how leadership is stretched over people and aspects of the situation within schools. This study investigates leadership practice for elementary science, using a multilevel distributed framework, to understand the interrelationships among educational leaders operating at various levels—from classrooms, to schools, to educational systems, and, beyond, to the educational sector. Research Methods/Approach: Using an embedded, comparative case study design, we analyzed leadership practice for elementary science reform in 13 school districts in the U.S. as leaders worked to bridge from the Next Generation Science Standards learning ideals to classroom instruction. Data collection included interviews, observations, and documents. Findings: Leading elementary science reform involved three core components of leadership practice: (1) garnering attention for science in a situation that prioritized the instruction of English Language Arts and mathematics; (2) cultivating and channeling essential relationships not only within the system but also in the broader education sector to access the resources needed to (re)build an educational infrastructure for elementary science instruction; and (3) supporting the use of educational infrastructure in everyday practice in schools. Implications: This study makes the case for using a multilevel distributed leadership perspective to frame studies of leadership practice to understand how efforts at different levels interact in shaping the practice of leadership. 

Mentoring relationships in academia have traditionally been described as a dyad between a mentor and a mentee. The mentor provides the mentee with both technical and psychosocial support to move toward obtaining their Ph.D. or gaining tenure and promotion. While there is an embedded assumption that mentoring is best suited when people of common background support each other, scholars must consider the impact of mentoring across differences. Given the lack of diversity among senior faculty members in science education, and given the increasing diversity represented among graduate students and early career scholars in science education, inevitably mentoring relationships will be formed across differences in identities (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability). In our essay, we focus on two focal points: we explore those aspects of mentoring relationships that research suggests are critical to the success of relationships built across differences, foregrounding lessons science education researchers can take from this literature and arguing that it is too much to expect one individual mentor to provide to any given mentee. Next, we propose a brokering framework, leveraging technological advances, to work toward more transformative mentoring outcomes at scale, particularly when mentoring across differences. 

This comparative case study explores how 18 state education agencies (SEAs) support school districts in advancing standards-based elementary science reform. We identify how SEAs understand their work in advancing elementary science reform and describe how SEAs sought to engage districts in bridging from standards to classroom practice. Based on our analysis, we argue that the school subject is a critical explanatory variable in understanding SEA efforts to support standards implementation and SEAs lean on a resource-based approach for instructional policy implementation. This study contributes to the growing research base on the role of state policy in supporting standards implementation.