Empowering International Science Teacher Candidates (ISTC) to Become Agentive Contributors to a Teaching and Learning Science Culture

• In Event: Supporting BIPOC Teachers and Teacher Educators

Abstract

International Science Teachers and Teacher Candidates (ISTCs) often encounter multiple deficit views that hinder their strength and effectiveness in teacher education. The literature largely portrays ISTCs through a lens of linguistic and cultural deficits, overlooking their potential contributions. This study aims to develop a Transformative Empowerment Framework for ISTCs (TEFI) that shifts the narrative from a deficit to a more agentive and active perspective, which employs Transformative Activist Stance (TAS), Standpoint Theory, Indigenous Knowledge Theory, Belongingness and Care theory to develop a bricolage theoretical framework. The framework was integrated into a graduate-level science education pedagogy course. Evidence shows that the framework effectively challenged and began to transform the entrenched deficit stance both internally among ISTCs and externally among educational stakeholders.

Author

• Moyu Zhang, New York University