"They Were Teaching Us!" Preservice Teacher and Elementary Student Collaborative Inquiry in STEM Education

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Culture, Identity, and Inquiry in STEM Teacher Education

Abstract

This study explored how preservice teachers engaged in collaborative inquiry with elementary students, as a transformative pedagogical tool, in a science methods course and in what ways the engagement with collaborative inquiry shaped the preservice teachers’ positioning as STEM educators. Guided by the critical ethnography and data analysis spiral, we analyzed multiple qualitative data of eighteen preservice teachers collected through participant observation, interviews, and artifact collection. Our findings illustrated the manner in which preservice teachers (1) leveraged student contexts and lived histories, (2) became co-agents of change alongside elementary students, and (3) positioned themselves as critical STEM educators. This study contributes to expanding discourse about the collaborative inquiry as a new pedagogical model in teacher education programs.

Authors

• Christina Macias, California State University, Fresno

• Myunghwan Shin, California State University, Fresno