Latent becoming: Pre-service teachers learning to teach engineering in elementary and middle grades

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Posthuman Reimaginings of Teaching and Teacher Education

Abstract

There is limited data on how K-8 teachers implement engineering in classrooms, making it difficult to evaluate instruction methods, integration, time spent, and assessments (NASEM, 2020). This lack suggests that engineering is not as embedded as language arts or math; pre-service teachers have few chances to practice engineering instruction (Hammack & Ivey, 2019), and professional development on engineering is scarce (Aguirre-Munoz et al., 2021). Using the concepts of territorialization and deterritorialization, we argue that even when pre-service teachers receive engineering training (e.g., in summer programs), mentor teachers often lack the expertise to support implementation. As a result, engineering lessons are avoided in practice, limiting opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop into confident K-8 engineering educators.

Authors

• Max Vazquez Dominguez, University of North Georgia

• Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso, Mississippi State University