Infrastructuring Teacher Learning about Equitable Science Instruction

Re‐designing infrastructure as a strategy for crafting coherence across three networks focused on the implementation of the next generation science standards

“…While researchers like Penuel (2019) have begun to provide illustrative examples of what infrastructure work might look like, to date there exists only a limited amount of research that provides empirical case studies to exemplify and unearth the complexity of developing infrastructure that is connected to the NGSS implementation work of various actors in the educational system. In other words, while research has begun to reveal the complexity of NGSS implementation for teachers in connection to different forms of infrastructure (e.g., Bell, 2019; Penuel et al, 2015) and some research has begun to reveal the complexity of supporting administrators with NGSS‐designed infrastructure (e.g., McNeill et al, 2018), few studies have brought to light the complexity of NGSS implementation in connection to the beneficial role infrastructure development can play in the work of actors across the educational system.…”

“…Bell (2019) indicated that infrastructure is a collaborative effort, writing, “[Infrastructure] as a shared collaborative design practice is [an] inherently complicated endeavor, but it has a strong potential for productively working toward equity across networks of teachers, community members, and researchers” (p. 682). This collaborative quality is important because it supports collegiality in working sessions so that they are productive and equitable by surfacing all actors' experiences, challenges, and needs (Little, 1982).…”

“…For our study, we used the conception of crafting coherence to analyze how individual networks constructed their audiences, which we recognized led network actors to re‐design infrastructure to meet the goals and perceived needs of these audiences as part of implementing the NGSS at their specific level within the educational system. Beyond thinking about crafting coherence, we also drew on the notion of infrastructure (Bell, 2019; Penuel, 2019; Star, 1999) as a conceptual tool to enhance the power of our analysis.…”

“…These efforts could address how educational actors go about accomplishing their day‐to‐day priorities of directly (i.e., teachers) or indirectly (e.g., district science curriculum directors) engaging students in relational and consequential three‐dimensional sensemaking daily and across an academic year. For those few researchers who have oriented to the translational aspects of the coherence‐focused work of various educational actors (e.g., Bell, 2019; Penuel, 2019), the re‐design of infrastructure has emerged as an important focus for enabling educational actors to negotiate the complex terrain of crafting coherence. Here, infrastructure can be understood simply as a system of common working practices or routines and material resources that a community of professional actors (e.g., teachers, district science coordinators) collaboratively use to accomplish their work (Star, 1999).…”

What Science and STEM Teachers Can Learn from COVID-19: Harnessing Data Science and Computer Science through the Convergence of Multiple STEM Subjects

“…Supporting teacher professional learning to implement our instructional framework means that teacher educators and educational leaders should design professional learning experiences that extend and share teachers' knowledge, judgment, and potential as they refine their classroom practices to promote K-12 students' engagement in problem-solving of complex societal issues (Bell, 2019). Initially, drawing on effective approaches supportive of teacher learning (e.g., Palinscar et al, 1998;Reiser, 2013), teachers put on their "learner hats" to successfully engage in problem-solving with data science and computer science in pursuits that leverage multidisciplinary convergence.…”