Racialized spatial imaginaries: Authoring an elementary school teacher of engineering identity

Abstract

Engineering education research has highlighted the importance of examining, understanding, and supporting teacher learning and identity development, particularly for those that hold marginalized identities. As part of the special issue on Teacher Learning and Organizational Contexts, this study examines the intricate relationship between powered boundaries of race, culture, and space for two Black women teachers in organizational contexts within their school district. Using a racialized spatial imaginaries framework, this research describes how two women authored identities as teachers of engineering and cultivated new engineering related spatial imaginaries for their students. The study found that ideational, material, and relational resources made available across organizational contexts contributed to teachers' authoring identities and how they supported their students. The work illuminates how a spatial imaginaries framework can support critical investigation of teacher identity development and (re)examination of how Black students are positioned in spaces of teacher inquiry.