Using Expansive Co-Design Practices to Promote Equity and Coherence

• In Event: 79.045 - Examining Successes and Challenges From Five Different Science Teacher Professional Development Projects Around the Next Generation Science Standards

Abstract

Objective
As A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework; NRC, 2012) is being implemented in the U.S., there have been challenges fostering equity and coherence across state science education systems. We address the question: What collaborative design (co-design) infrastructuring practices promote equity and coherence across and within state education systems involved in educational reform?
Theoretical Framework
Educational improvement can be conceptualized as intentional shifts in the arrangement and workings of a complex, interacting system (Bell & Stromholt, 2017); thus the integration of knowledge from both research and practice are required to productively shift the routinized work of education systems (Flyvbjerg, 2001) and diverse community participation is necessary (Yosso, 2005).
Methods
The ADVANCE project (pseudonym), a research practice partnership (RPP; Coburn & Penuel, 2016) involving participants from 13 states and two universities, has been engaged in the co-design and adaptive use of professional learning experiences and resources for enacting the Framework vision from an equity stance. This study examines how resources co-developed through design-based implementation research (Fishman et al., 2013) can be leveraged to improve coherence and equity across large educational systems (Coburn, 2001).
Data
Data sources include surveys, interviews, field notes and artifacts. We engaged in reconstructive (Carspecken, 1996) and ethnographic analysis (Wolcott, 1997) to identify themes around co-design practices that supported equity and coherence.
Results
Infrastructure supports involved in the co-design process supported equity and coherence across and within state education systems, including feedback processes and the engagement in rehearsals to learn how to use resources (Lampert et al., 2013).
Feedback processes involved all participants in the implementation project as well as the process of codesign itself. Figure 1 illustrates select feedback received around a sequence of co-designed resources built to support professional learning (A-E). For example, increased equity feedback over time, particularly around resource C—which was focused on culturally responsive instruction—indicates the expanding understanding that was collectively shared around what constitutes equity concerns in science education as well as the strategic leveraging of network expertise most relevant to a given resource.

Figure 1. Proportional Dimensions of Feedback from State Science Leaders for Revisions

Rehearsals supported pedagogical and conceptual learning of state science leaders. Supporting state science leaders in cycles of rehearsals allowed them to expand their familiarity and comfort with new aspects of the Framework vision, to anticipate what areas teachers may find challenging, to practice their own facilitation of learning, and to collectively explore ways to contextualize the resources for their own contexts. Participants in both rehearsals and feedback sessions came to develop increased agency with the resources—and many adapted and used them in their local contexts.
Scholarly Significance
This work focuses on creating science learning environments that promote the use of formative assessment in aligning curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional learning across states focused on equitable 3-dimensional learning. This is a broadly relevant issue for science education from an equity perspective. The work also explores the possibilities of RPP model for supporting equity-centered educational improvement across multiple state contexts.

Authors

• Deb Morrison, University of Washington - Seattle

• Gina Tesoriero, University of Washington - Seattle

• Philip L. Bell, University of Washington

• Tiffany Neill, Oklahoma Department of Education