Science Teacher Circles: Developing a professional learning community to re-imagine secondary science teaching (Poster 10)

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

Abstract

Objectives: Science Teacher Circles (STCs) is a professional learning community of secondary science teachers and researchers. We engage in expansive science sensemaking to recognize heterogeneity in understanding the natural world and to imagine more equitable science teaching. In this paper we explore how STC members connected their STC participation to teaching in their specific historical and sociopolitical contexts.
Perspectives/theoretical framework: Teachers have power in what they make space for and value in classrooms, yet they are often disempowered in policy and research. Considering these multiple power dynamics, we draw on teacher solidarity co-design, an approach that brings together participatory design and co-design to value teacher agency and restructure teacher-researcher relations (Philip, et al. 2022). This framing foregrounds mutual teacher/researcher learning for reimagining ways of being and becoming a science teacher.
Methods: Six teachers and three researchers co-designed the vision, commitments, and structure of STCs. We engaged in sensemaking activities to expand what we value in science. For instance, we explored the question of why salt, fat, acid, and heat might make food taste better (Nosrat, 2017) by considering cultural, historical, geological, chemical, and biological influences. We read and discussed papers on power and historicity in science learning (e.g., Sengupta-Irving, et al. 2021) to develop shared commitments for our community.
Data sources: Teachers and researchers contributed artifacts that reflected their learning and connections to their pedagogy, honoring our respective sociopolitical histories and contexts. We interviewed community members and examined videorecordings to develop descriptive cases.
Results: We provide accounts of four artifacts. Stacy, teaching in an under-resourced middle school serving predominantly immigrant communities, brought a materials-based lesson as her artifact. She had found joy and inspiration in working with everyday materials in STCs. She wanted her students to have similar experiences and thought materials could help her multilingual learners develop and communicate their ideas. Peter, an environmental science teacher, had reflected during STCs about how to navigate dominant, Western ways of communicating which objectified and put distance between students and the Earth. He presented a new lab report model that pushed against taking an objective and removed perspective on phenomena. Christina, a biology teacher at a magnet high school, brought an environmental justice lesson she had co-developed with Peter. She had previously tried to implement justice-oriented lessons without department support; STCs helped her connect to others’ expertise and offering community support. Lastly, Yeung, a researcher and TA for a preservice teacher course, brought a Chinese student’s assignment reflecting on traditional Chinese medicine as a way of knowing that is different but not inferior to Western science. The STC community helped him appreciate the ways that he and others can integrate their cultural histories in science.
Significance: These cases highlight ways that specific cultural, sociopolitical, and geographic contexts shaped how participants connected their learning in STCs to their pedagogy. By drawing on teacher solidarity co-design, we sought for teachers and researchers to jointly articulate the value of this community and the role it can play for re-imagining and transforming science in schools.

Authors

• Jessica Watkins, Vanderbilt University

• Anastasia Y. Goodwin, Vanderbilt University

• Ying Yeung Tang, Vanderbilt University