Challenging Disciplinary Learning & Practice in STEM Education

• In Event: Co-Designing Collective Learning for Ethnic Studies Teacher Education

Abstract

Objective
As Ethnic Studies (ES) become part of California’s educational paradigm, there exists a perception that ES and STEM are antithetical due to time and space constraints (Hernandez et al., 2024). However, approaching ES beyond traditional curricular boundaries to include everyday practices can undo this perceived antithesis. While STEM focuses on technical skills, ES pedagogies recognize the ‘hidden figures’ in STEM (Peters, 2021), integrating diverse practices and perspectives. This enables transformative learning opportunities for teachers to design learning environments that diverge from traditional approaches. Key questions include: How did Math and Science pre-service teachers learn and make sense of their ES pedagogies? How can we recognize the everydayness of their practices that teachers may not see themselves?

Framework
This work is grounded in teacher solidarity co-design, emphasizing mutual learning and countering the deprofessionalization of traditional neoliberal teaching perspectives (Philip et al., 2022). It examines how teaching and learning are embedded in everyday activities and interactions (Espinoza & Vossoughi, 2016). By recognizing the everydayness of teaching and learning, this work affirms and validates teachers’ everyday practices, resisting depersonalization and humanizing their collective work. A co-design emphasis on mutual engagement with ES and STEM embedded in everyday teaching and learning embraces transdisciplinary learning possibilities (Warren et al., 2020), combatting antithetical perceptions that more time or space is needed.

Methods
I conducted a co-design inquiry group with three Math and Science Teachers of Color as part of a broader ES learning community in a university-based teacher preparation program. I focused on dialogical moments (Philip et al., 2018) through which learning and sensemaking occurred during collective discussions and debriefs with teachers. By analyzing these moments using collective debrief notes, transcripts, field notes, and analytic memos, the research aimed to uncover how these interactions facilitated the integration of ES pedagogies into their practice. The data was analyzed using open and focused coding (Saldana, 2015) to identify transdisciplinary teaching and learning possibilities that diverge from traditional approaches. Cross-case analysis was conducted to examine emerging themes across different cases, highlighting patterns and divergences in the teachers’ learning experiences and pedagogical sensemaking.

Results
The dialogical moments between teachers and the author revealed initial findings related to teacher learning of ES pedagogies:
● The dialogical moments were humanizing, providing a supportive “therapy sesh” where teachers felt safe to express personal and professional challenges (debrief transcripts).
● Teachers engaged with and contested ideological perspectives, particularly with cooperating teachers, facilitating a deeper understanding and reimagining of traditional STEM disciplines through an ES lens (conversations; debrief transcripts).
● Recognition of everyday practices, where teachers began to notice and value the often-unnoticed aspects of their teaching that contribute to the implementation of ES pedagogies (analytic memos; debrief transcripts).

Significance
The findings demonstrate that integrating ES pedagogies within STEM disciplines is not only possible but transformative. By learning to see the integration of ES and STEM in the everyday, rather than as an additive approach, we challenge the perceived antithesis between ES and STEM, fostering inclusive and expansive educational paradigms that enrich both fields.

Author

• Emanuel Suarez Jimenez, University of California - Santa Cruz