Framing Reform & Discourse: An NLP and Organizational Analysis of STEM Education Logics and Reformers' Positionality

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond Access: How Policy, Data, and Tools Shape Students’ Educational Opportunities

Abstract

This study introduced and examines how diverse organizational actors framed California’s controversial 2023 Math Framework revision through the analysis of public comment discourse. Using institutional logics theory and reformer positionality frameworks, we analyze 631 public comments with natural language processing techniques, including BERTopic and sparse autoencoders. We find how STEM professionals, educators, and advocacy groups mobilize logics of equity, rigor, and access differently. This shows that positionality shapes discourse strategies and that public comments can serve as new sites for curriculum reform. We hope this project highlights how education policy debates are shaped not only by content, but by the language, logic, and rhetoric that can be used to legitimize reform.

Author

• Jose Roman Aguilar, University of California - Berkeley