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Female, Black, Latino and Native American students are underrepresented in the STEM pipeline. Finding ways to increase underrepresented populations in STEM fields continues to be a major initiative in education. Many underrepresented student groups express a strong orientation toward service and community engagement. Informal Science Education (ISE) can be structured to include community engagement and to engage learners’ interest and enhance their understanding of the theory and practice of science. Service learning is a strategy that can be used within an ISE pedagogy to highlight how engineering acts as a community engaged vocation. This report describes a service learning project that exposed underrepresented high school aged students to engineering via a community service activity in which students built irrigation equipment for use in a community garden. The objective of the project was to use the context of service learning to motivate high school students to consider STEM majors. To describe the impact of informal science education through service learning, a qualitative study was also conducted. Three themes emerged: experiential learning (learning while doing), broadening perspective and identity as performance. Lessons learned and strategies for improving the service learning design are also discussed.

Through course readings, museum visits, focus group discussions, and reflections on clinical observation experiences, preservice teachers developed a fictitious educational setting (Courage High School) that incorporates critical, social justice practices and privileges the experiences and cultural backgrounds of all K-12 students. Participants presented a model for this school and how it would benefit specific student needs. From our classroom experiences, the authors developed recommendations for how future educators problematized ideas of courage, race, and diversity in developing Courage High School. The authors suggest that using museums as experiential pedagogical tools and offering authentic learning opportunities can encourage a critical, social justice orientation to teaching and may inspire future teachers to enact courage in their teaching practice.

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Windows into Teaching and Learning (WiTL) was a project designed by researchers at one southeastern U.S. University that allowed the facilitation of online clinical experiences for graduate interns during their content area methods course. WiTL was originally developed to address challenges in providing meaningful clinical experiences for interns during online summer coursework. In providing these experiences, a mentoring relationship emerged between the participating practicing and pre-service teachers. This chapter explores those relationships and how they were fostered by the unique features of WiTL, which include online threaded discussions, synchronous and asynchronous viewings of classroom instruction, and text chat communication. These relationships are further supported through WiTL's debriefing process, which allows for immediate interaction between pre-service and mentor teachers. The type of dialogue and collaboration encouraged by WiTL results in strong mentoring relationships. The potential for programs like WiTL to be implemented in PK-12 settings are discussed.

Background/Context Prior research on Milliken v. Bradley focuses on the failure of this case to implement interdistrict busing in the highly segregated Detroit schools. Much of this work focuses explicitly on desegregation, rather than on equity and addressing individual, systemic, institutional, and organizational challenges that may prevent the advancement and actualization of desegregation to benefit Black students, teachers, and communities. Purpose/Objective In this study, we shed light on the impacts of desegregation on Black students, teachers, and communities. We argue that Brown, Milliken, and associated policies that attempt to address segregation focus mostly on student assignment policies. Our focus instead is on highlighting the underconceptualized microlevel realities of desegregation, which include the losses of cultural and community connections, strong role models, and connections to school. Population/Participants This study draws from interview data collected from three experts in the field of education whose research focuses on school desegregation. The interview participants have written scholarly articles and/or book chapters about desegregation and related influences on/for Black teachers, Black students, and Black communities spanning the PreK–12 and higher education spectrum. Research Design This study employs in-depth qualitative interviewing. Data Collection and Analysis Interviews were conducted by phone and lasted approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Participants in the study were asked questions about the impact of desegregation and education on Black teachers’ experience, self-concept, dedication, and retention; Black students’ experience of schools and school-related success; experience and connection of Black communities; and “next steps” in educating Black students. An interpretive perspective was used to guide the interview analyses in this study. Findings/Results Analysis of the expert interviews reveals the underexplored microlevel losses and harmful effects of desegregation policies and politics on Black children, families, and communities. Conclusions/Recommendations Evidence from these researchers who have studied desegregation suggests that for many Black students and educators, desegregation was unsuccessful— even when there were superficial indicators of success. We suggest that both researchers and policy makers should consider drawing from the potential losses associated with desegregation and focusing on equity, regardless of schooling location and population.

Windows into Teaching and Learning (WiTL) was a project designed by researchers at one southeastern U.S. University that allowed the facilitation of online clinical experiences for graduate interns during their content area methods course. WiTL was originally developed to address challenges in providing meaningful clinical experiences for interns during online summer coursework. In providing these experiences, a mentoring relationship emerged between the participating practicing and pre-service teachers. This chapter explores those relationships and how they were fostered by the unique features of WiTL, which include online threaded discussions, synchronous and asynchronous viewings of classroom instruction, and text chat communication. These relationships are further supported through WiTL's debriefing process, which allows for immediate interaction between pre-service and mentor teachers. The type of dialogue and collaboration encouraged by WiTL results in strong mentoring relationships. The potential for programs like WiTL to be implemented in PK-12 settings are discussed.