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Abstract Mathematics teacher leaders may play an integral role in supporting change to address inequities in STEM education. To harness this potential, there is a need to identify effective professional development models that empower and motivate mathematics teacher leaders. We examine one such model focused on developing 30 K‐12 mathematics teacher leaders to support and expand teacher leadership within Nebraska, USA. Data analysis from interviews and surveys suggest that the project's focus on building and expanding teacher leaders' professional networks and increasing access to a variety of leadership opportunities contributed to a culture that empowered and motivated teacher leaders. Using the four frames model of organizational change in STEM, we identify several cultural features that contributed to the project's impact, including a cohort model connecting like‐minded educators that supported each other's efforts to enact changes; a distributed leadership philosophy that positioned participants as leaders within the project and at the university in which the project was situated; structural supports (e.g., funding, awards) for participants to engage in leadership; and a tailored approach to support participants based on their individual goals and vision for leadership. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for developing and supporting mathematics teacher leadership. 

This chapter focuses on accessible active learning (AL) strategies that promote equitable and effective student-centered instruction for higher education. Although there is not a consensus definition of AL across disciplines, principles of AL include attention to student engagement with content, peer-to-peer interactions, instructor uses of student thinking, and instructor attention to equity. A variety of AL strategies vary in complexity, time, and resources, and instructors can build up repertoires of such teaching practices. The field needs cultural change that moves away from lecture and toward AL and student engagement as the norm for equitable and effective teaching. Although such cultural change needs to include instructor professional learning about AL strategies, it also needs attention to collective beliefs, power dynamics, and structures that support (or inhibit) equitable AL implementation. This chapter provides frameworks for sustainable change to using AL in higher education, as well as research-based findings around which AL strategies are easy on-ramps for novice instructors. This chapter also provides a few specific examples of structures that support AL—course coordination and peer mentoring—and provides questions one may pose in attempting to spur cultural change that centers AL. 

Background and Context: Professional development (PD) programs for K-12 computer science teachers use surveys to measure teachers’ knowledge and attitudes while recognizing daily sentiment and emotion changes can be crucial for providing timely teacher support. Objective: We investigate approaches to compute sentiment and emotion scores automatically and identify associations between the scores and teachers’ performance. Method: We compute the scores from teachers’ assignments using a machine-assisted tool and measure score changes with standard deviation and linear regression slopes. Further, we compare the scores to teachers’ performance and post-PD qualitative survey results. Findings: We find significant associations between teachers’ sentiment and emotion scores and their performance across demographics. Additionally, we find significant associations that are not captured by post-PD qualitative surveys. Implications: The sentiment and emotion scores can viably reflect teachers’ performance and enrich our understanding of teachers’ learning behaviors. Further, the sentiment and emotion scores can complement conventional surveys with additional insights related to teachers’ learning performance. 

This study provides practical suggestions for the features to be prioritized in spending limited resources to create and improve educational technology like Cell Collective. The results suggest a need to prioritize features improving the learning rather than the teaching side to motivate instructors more effectively to adopt and use the technology.