“We all chose to be together for this purpose”: Centering justice with professional learning communities (Poster 2)

• In Event: Research on STEM Professional Learning Communities: Attending to Teacher Learning, Agency, and Equity

Abstract

Purpose:
The Next Generation Science Standards (Lead States, 2013), currently being implemented across the country, require dramatic shifts in teachers’ pedagogical practices, especially with the call to use NGSS to achieve equity in and through science (Philip & Azevedo, 2017). Professional learning communities (PLC) are potentially powerful spaces for teachers to work collaboratively to improve and transform their practices toward these ambitious, equitable, and justice-centered aims (e.g., Friedrichsen & Barnett, 2018; Leonard & Woodland, 2022). In PLCs, teachers identify “without ceilings” problems (Thompson, et al., 2015), develop practices that hold potential for effectively addressing these problems, and report on the results of enacting these strategies. Additionally, PLCs can support teachers in managing the emotional weight of centering justice (Authors). In this study, we explored the roles PLCs, consisting of preservice (PSTs), early and later career teachers, individually as well as as a network, played in supporting teachers’ development of justice-centered ambitious science teaching practices.

Theoretical Framework:
Justice-centered Ambitious Science Teaching (JuST) (Author, 2024) builds on the empirically-supported value of the core sets of ambitious science teaching practices (e.g. Windschitl, et al., 2012) with the current literature on what it means to center equity and justice in and through science teaching (e.g. Morales-Doyle, 2024). The JuST Framework (authors) outlines core elements of what justice-centered science teaching requires and involves. In addition, we build on the communities of learners' literature (e.g. Lave & Wenger, 2017) as we explore how teachers navigate these challenges together.

Methods & Data Sources
Transcripts of video recordings of PLC meetings and end-of-year interviews served as primary data. Emergent codes that highlighted the diverse types of value PLCs provided teachers seeking to implement JuST practices were identified and analyzed.

Findings
Findings showed PLCs as spaces where 1) teachers grappled with critical issues of justice-centered science teaching; 2) multigenerational (teachers at different stages of their career) teacher learning took place; and 3) teachers shared a sense of solidarity. In the studied PLCs, teachers shared their concerns and struggles with discussing critical issues of justice-centered science education, such as race, with their students. Veteran teachers relied on the newcomers to unpack what JuST meant as PSTs were still regularly exposed to JuST in their science education program, while newcomers learned from veterans’ past experiences to be more aware of ways to navigate institutional culture to enact JuST practice. Teachers described the value of the PLC network as providing a feeling of a broader community; they felt they were not alone in doing this important work by hearing “other people who think the same things” from other states. Due to the shared value of justice-centered teaching, these colleagues recognized the value of their work, validating the significance of their work that school-based colleagues and administrators did not always value.

Significance
This work underscores the importance of PLCs as necessary spaces for JuST practice as politically, intellectually, emotionally and professionally complex work. Having JuST as a shared ambitious mission offered teachers support, motivated risk-taking, and provided opportunities for recognition by like-minded peers.

Authors

• Yang Zhang, Northwestern University

• April L. Luehmann, University of Rochester

• Todd Campbell, University of Connecticut

• Déana A Scipio, IslandWood