Strategic Partnerships to Provide Free, Culturally Responsive, and Innovative STE(A)M Professional Development for Public Educators

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: Examining the Challenges of Race and Academic Rigor

Abstract

With a significant population of Native Americans (approximately 35%), the leaders of the historically marginalized population of Southeastern Oklahoma (SE OK) region continue to seek diverse, innovative, and rigorous methods to build the necessary wisdom, commitment, and capacity for meeting the challenges of public education (AERA, 2017). Thus, one method of empowering Native Americans is a university and community partnership to empower culturally-responsive, innovative STE(A)M K-12 professional development opportunities. Currently, there is a lack of research regarding these issues; thus, grounded in Wenger’s (2009) virtual communities of practice theory, the purpose of this mixed methods study is to explore ways in these programs can empower the educational community, especially those in rural and remote areas.

Author

• Crystal Claudett Moore, Southeastern Oklahoma State University