Building Teacher Leadership for Equitably Accessible Distance Science Learning in a School District During COVID-19

• In Event: Identifying and Navigating the Curriculum and Instructional Equity Fault Lines of the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Our research team is part of a long-term research-practice partnership with a Professional Development (PD) team and a school district, to build the district’s capacity in elementary science by developing teacher leadership. The PD team designs and implements PD for the district’s mentor teachers, who support their peers to engage students in argumentation from evidence. The research team studies the process and its impact and provides ongoing feedback to the evolving program. Since the COVID-19 pandemic partnership activities changed to address partners’ urgent needs, including the emergence of new challenges for teachers in implementing the science curriculum in distance learning that are notably equity-related. In addition, the summer institute for the mentor teachers was quickly moved to an online platform.

The district identified student engagement (SE) and social-emotional learning (SEL) as central equity-related challenges. We approach SE as a construct of behavioral (participation, task completion), emotional (sense of belonging, relationships), cognitive (autonomy, self-regulation), and social (communication) practices (Fredricks et al., 2004; Bergdahl et al., 2020). SEL promotes learning environments that are supportive, engaging, and participatory, and that foster the development of cognitive, affective, and behavioral competencies (Osher et al., 2016). Developing the ability to argue from evidence requires: a) gains in oral communications skills, literacy and numeracy; b) social and emotional development, and more collaborative relationships with others; and c) improved articulacy and confidence in speaking and listening (Alexander 2020). Supporting students to engage in argumentation, therefore, is a way of developing several elements of SE and SEL. The ability to engage students in scientific argumentation from evidence requires specific elements of knowledge such as instructional strategies that enable discourse, fluency with a repertoire of discourse facilitation moves, and a meta-level understanding of the nature of argumentative dialogue (Koeppen et al., 2008; Sisk-Hilton, 2009).

The changes demanded by COVID-19 provide an opportunity to understand affordances and constraints of distance contexts for professional learning. We investigate the following research questions (RQs):

a) What challenges do SCUSD mentor teachers face during shelter-in-place in their roles as teachers and as leaders?
b) How does the PD team adapt the leadership development experiences to support
mentor teachers in their roles as teachers and as leaders, with a focus on promoting SE
and SEL using argumentation in distance learning?

We address RQ(a) through interviews and surveys and RQ(b) through observations, artifacts, and interviews (see Table 1). The participants are two district administrators, ten mentor teachers (grades 3-5), and four PD facilitators.

Initial analyses highlight ways in which the PD team adapted summer leadership development experiences for mentor teachers to address challenges that emerged in the COVID-19 context. Key changes included moving online, developing mentor teachers' ability to support both their students and their peers through activities and resources designed to encourage SE and SEL (Week 1), and connecting argumentation activities to SE and SEL (Week 2). These findings are important for those engaged in providing distance professional learning experiences for teacher leaders who support peers in fostering equity in distance science learning.

Authors

• Coralie F Delhaye, Stanford University

• Hilda Borko, Stanford University

• Matthew Wilsey, Stanford University

• Emily V. Reigh, Stanford University

• Jonathan F. Osborne, Stanford University