Leveraging Collaborative Spaces to Foster Teacher Agency and Shifts in Practice During Next Generation Science Standards Implementation

• In Event: 68.017 - Equity-Focused Implementation of Next Generation Science Standards: Exploring Models of Hope and Possibility

Abstract

Objective
Researchers have long been engaged in examining structures for supporting teacher learning in collaborative spaces often with the goal of shaping classroom practices in a particular way through teacher learning and engagement in reform teaching efforts. However, such shifts have been difficult to achieve (Cuban, 1984). In recent years, more focused attempts on linking classroom practice more directly to teacher learning have been documented (Furtak, Morrison, & Kroog, 2014; Horn, 2010), and recent research has shown that improving teacher agency can lead to shifts in classroom practice (Severance, et. al, 2016). In the present study we are interested in understanding how collaborative spaces can be designed to expand participants’ agency in reform processes. We seek to understand teacher learning related to how NGSS can support equity through classroom formative assessment practices in a sustained collaboration between a university and school district.
Theoretical Framework
Within a larger design-based implementation research (DBIR; Penuel, et al., 2011) project, this analysis focuses on the co-design work of collaborative teacher learning experiences using a design based research approach (Bell, 2004). In partnership with researchers and district staff, teachers adapted existing curriculum materials to support implementation of the vision of science education expressed in the NGSS and Framework (NRC, 2012). Teacher learning of this new vision was framed through collective sense-making (Coburn, 2001). Sense-making spaces draw upon the community cultural wealth of participants’ lived experiences in multiple communities (Wenger, 1998; Yosso, 2005). Learning in this conceptualization is expansive in nature, seeking to shift a learner’s participation and position within any given activity (Engeström & Sannino, 2010).
Method & Data Sources
We used a case study approach (Yin, 2003) to examine the practices of nine high school teachers. These teachers are part of the larger collaborative project involving approximately 100 teachers from urban districts which have been engaged across multiple years to negotiate problems of practice associated with implementing the NGSS. Data sources include ethnographic fieldnotes, audiorecordings, artifacts, and surveys which were analyzed across multiple levels of the partnership (management, program design, program implementation, classroom).
Findings & Significance
Participants’ agency was expanded through two key design elements. First, the collaborative space promoted a culture of collective sense-making. During the professional development meetings, teachers engaged in collective sense-making (Coburn, 2001) in three areas: 1) development of formative assessments and lesson plans, 2) analysis of student thinking, and 3) identifying problems of practice and productive approaches in instruction. Second, the collaborative space promoted a culture of iterating on improvements with multiple cycles of revision, enactment, analysis, and reflection within a single year. These values were promoted both in the professional development design and through the interactions between participants. These two design elements expanded participants’ agency in the design process emphasizing the importance of both collective and individual efforts in the educational improvement effort.
This work is particularly significant as provides an empirically grounded model of teacher practice shifts with multiple iterations of teachers’ collective inquiry into practice per year. In addition, reform efforts are kept localized to particular contexts.

Authors

• Philip L. Bell, University of Washington

• Heena Lakhani, University of Washington - Seattle

• Deb Morrison, University of Washington - Seattle