How Elementary Science Teachers Navigate the Organization in Professional Development (Poster 9)

• In Event: System-Building for Improving Elementary Science Teaching and Learning: From the Classroom to the Central Office

Abstract

Purpose
This study examines how elementary teachers in science education PD navigate an organizational environment that deprioritizes science education.

Theoretical Framework
The elementary context greatly mediates teachers’ uptake and enactment of reform-based instructional practices during professional development (PD) (Sandholtz et al., 2019). Organizational norms, relationships, structures, and policies serve as barriers, hindering teacher change and leading teachers to rely on traditional pedagogies. This situation is particularly prevalent in schools serving historically marginalized students, where science education is often neglected (Author, 2016). Yet, despite this reality, some elementary teachers find ways to navigate organizational barriers to build science instruction into existing classroom routines. Drawing on the conceptual framing of “creative insubordination,” (Gutierrez, 2016, p. 679) we analyze interview data to understand how teachers who are committed to equitable, reform-based science education strategize to resist anti-science aspects of their environments (Carlone, et al., 2010).

Modes of Inquiry
This interview study is part of a large four-year, NSF funded elementary science PD program for grades 3-5 in the Western part of the US (Science Learning Partnership; SLP). Teachers participated in weeklong summer institute and three Saturday workshops each year focused on 3-dimensional NGSS-based instructional practices as well as equitable sensemaking discourse (Odden & Russ, 2019). In addition, the project worked across sectors to build capacity for science education within districts.

Data/Analysis
We used inductive, descriptive, and theoretical coding (Saldana, 2013) to analyze interviews of 34 teachers who took part in the PD over two years. Interviews followed a lesson observation, and asked teachers about their successes and challenges with implementing focal instructional practices, whether they had increased using those practices, and what made that possible. Teachers were relatively diverse (55% identified as BIPOC), evenly distributed across grades, and represented seven districts.

Findings
The results of the descriptive analysis are illustrated in the figure below. Of excerpts that pertained to the norms, relationships, structures, or policies within the organization, teachers perceived 53% as a barrier, 20% as aligned, and 27% as both. In most cases of barriers, teachers found a way around the barrier (75%) in order to enact equitable, reform-based science teaching. They navigated these barriers in a variety of ways, structurally, pedagogically, and ideologically. Common structural navigation included integrating science with other subjects, teaching science for the grade level, and creative approaches to buying materials. Common pedagogical navigation included leveraging the legitimacy and resources available in SLP PD and applying instructional routines from other subjects. Ideologically, teachers navigated organizational barriers through changing their perception of the barrier, attempting to change the barrier, or ignoring/resisting the barrier.

Significance
This study provides a window into the creative resistance strategies employed by elementary teachers who are committed to teaching science in districts that deprioritize it, creatively problem-solving so they can continue to do “everything that’s good, right, and worthwhile” (Carlone, 2010, p11; Sandholtz, et al., 2019). We contribute to a growing body of literature that seeks to understand how the organizational environment shapes science teaching and learning.

Author

• Kathryn N. Hayes, California State University - East Bay