Collaborating for Culturally Responsive Teaching: An Exploratory Study of STEM Teachers Partnering With Black Undergraduates

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Partnerships for Advancing Classroom Learning (Table 7)

Abstract

Collaborative partnerships between educators and STEM undergraduate of color pose merit for engaging underrepresented students in STEM classes. This qualitative multiple case study investigated how three pairs of STEM undergraduates and middle school teachers collaborated to design and enact engineering curriculum. We identified themes around the partners’ prior experiences and dispositions, shared values, roles assumed in design and implementation, and their perceptions of the collaboration. We found that teachers and undergraduates designed and taught engineering practices that moved from didactic teaching approaches to more culturally relevant instruction. The partners' STEM identities, how the teacher positioned the mentor in the learners' experience, and the teachers' vision and goals for engineering education influenced the implementation of culturally relevant teaching in the classroom.

Authors

• Meredith Weaver Kier, College of William & Mary
  Presenting Author

• Lindy L. Johnson, College of William & Mary
  Presenting Author