Developing identities of STEM teachers at emerging STEM schools

Abstract

BackgroundWith the expansion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools all over the United States and the world, new roles for teachers are being created, and with these roles, identities are evolving. However, these roles and identities remain an ill-defined area in STEM. The purpose of this paper was to explore the developing STEM teachers’ identities in emerging STEM schools, answering two research questions: (1) How do teachers define their roles as STEM teachers within a STEM school? (2) What do teachers identify as being important characteristics of STEM teachers? A multiple case study design was used to explore the research questions within a bounded context of two emerging STEM schools. Data for this study were drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with eight teachers from two developing STEM schools within a large urban district in the Midwestern United States. Teams of teachers at each of the schools worked throughout the year to develop and implement their vision for STEM.ResultsUsing an inductive data analysis process, three major themes that characterized a STEM teacher identity emerged. These were the unique nature of STEM teachers’ identity; professional characteristics of STEM; and personal characteristics of STEM teachers. Collaboration, flexibility, awareness of students’ needs, and advocates of equity and inclusion were identified as pivotal characteristics of STEM teachers.ConclusionThis study concluded that STEM teachers’ identity can be viewed as a dynamic, evolving process that results from the interaction of personal and professional traits within new educational experiences exemplified by the STEM endeavor in their schools. An alignment between teachers' personal philosophy and STEM understanding is essential for the success in teaching in STEM schools.

Identity evolution of STEM teachers in Egyptian STEM schools in a time of transition: a case study

“…Seen within the global urgency to improve K-12 STEM education (El Nagdi et al, 2018), the STEM reform experience in the Egyptian setting has deep implications not only in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region but also across the global south. The reform process has been initiated locally, but supported internationally through the USAID.…”

“…They embarked on this new professional journey equipped with the old tools of the traditional system, and the necessary shifts in classroom practices presented a steep learning curve for teachers requiring the development of a new identity as a STEM teacher. Given the limited research on how teachers develop STEM identities (El Nagdi, Leammukda, & Roehrig, 2018), exploration of the experiences of these Egyptian STEM teachers will provide additional information about the development of a STEM teacher identity. Specifically, this study explores how Egyptian STEM teachers navigated the new system and coped with the associated challenges, both personally and professionally, and explored the ways their identities as STEM teachers have evolved.…”

Research Attitudes, Motivations, and Challenges of STEM Education Researchers

“…Research is seen not only as an academic activity but as a useful asset in both professional and everyday life. For STEM educators, the practical aspect of research becomes more evident since they are expected to possess the same qualities expected of a STEM student such as the ability to research and draw connections among the types of technology used in their work (El-Nagdi, Leammukda, & Roehrig, 2018).…”

“…Research findings on how STEM education practices may be further improved will only be useful if education professionals in STEM are willing to integrate them into their practice. This atmosphere of learning, collaboration, and communication was noted in a study conducted among the teachers at emerging STEM schools who viewed themselves as learners and considered flexibility and openness as the main characteristics of STEM teachers (El Nagdi, Leammukda, & Roehrig, 2018). Doing research, however, is not free from challenges and barriers.…”

“I am a Rhetoric Physics Student-Teacher”: Identity Construction of an Indonesian Physics Student-Teacher

“…It catalyzes directly in student-teachers in their future teacher professional identity. Research related to professional identity has been conducted in many countries such as the U.S. (Badia & Iglesias, 2019;Deneroff, 2016;El Nagdi et al, 2018;Maddamsetti, 2020;Schaefer, 2013), Australia (Martin, 2019), Chile (Darragh & Radovic, 2019), the Netherlands (Leeferink et al, 2019), Korea (Ro, 2019), Turkey (Çetin & Eren, 2019), China (Deng et al, 2018;Teng, 2019;Wei et al, 2019;Ye & Zhao, 2019), Spain (Gracia et al, 2019;Losano et al, 2018), Brazil (Dominguez et al, 2015), Iran (Mahmoudi-Gahrouei et al, 2016), Hongkong (Trent, 2016), Singapore (Chong et al, 2011), Taiwan (Chien, 2019), Malaysia (Tangen et al, 2017), and Indonesia (Ilfiandra et al, 2019). However, there are a few amounts of studies on teacher professional identity in Indonesian science teachers.…”