Building Capacity for Teaching Engineering in Marginalized Communities: A Study of a Multistakeholder Research-Practice Partnership for Increasing Teacher Efficacy

• In Event: Examining Professional Learning in the Context of Engineering Instruction

Abstract

Recent inclusion of engineering content into K-12 curricula has posed a challenge for veteran teachers who must teach content for which they have no formal training. In this paper, we discuss how a research-practice partnership grounded in critical race design fostered a community which prepared middle school mathematics and science educators to teach engineering. Middle school mathematics and science teachers were shown to have greater self-efficacy for teaching engineering than teachers from similar school contexts who taught engineering in their classrooms with no partnership support. By providing teachers with content knowledge, improving their outcome expectations, and improving confidence in their ability to teach engineering, this initiative shows promise in building capacity for teaching engineering at the pre-college level.

Authors

• Meredith Weaver Kier, College of William and Mary

• Turhan Carroll, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Deena Khalil, Howard University

• Adrian Wayne Bruce, Prince George's County Public Schools

• Lauren Grob, College of William and Mary

• Kelly Leffel, College of William and Mary