When the World Tilted Differently: Science Teachers' Pandemic Stories Through Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (Poster 9)

What we've learned: A research agenda for a museum, 7 years later

“…Our research teams, partnerships, and collaborations—including at the Principal Investigator level—include Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx and White scholars, qualitative and quantitative researchers, senior researchers and principal investigators as well as junior scholars, interns and young adults. Critical to our research teams is the voice and expertise of practicing teachers who serve as teacher researchers, teacher co‐researchers, and youth co‐researchers who work alongside full‐time researchers (Chaffee et al, in press; Gjelaj et al, 2022; Howes & Wallace, 2022; Wallace, Howes, Funk, Krepski, et al, 2022; Wallace, Howes, Funk, Pincus, et al, 2022).…”

“…A number of research studies with teachers and other educators has surfaced a set of features critical to professional learning that supports teachers to learn about and take up ambitious and culturally responsive science teaching practices (Hammerness et al, 2023; Wallace, Howes, Funk, Krepski, et al, 2022; Wallace, Howes, Funk, Pincus, et al, 2022; Wallace, MacPherson, et al, 2021). First, a number of our programs offer specialized cumulative learning experiences for teachers at different stages from preservice, to novice; mid‐career to veterans.…”

“…This includes a collaboratively developed instructional strategy that encourages more student talk about science in their classrooms; the design of culturally responsive curriculum and instruction in Earth science; and strategies to develop and deepen relationships with students through science, such as integrating examples into their lessons that are grounded in students' assets and lived experiences and creating space to share about themselves (Wallace, Howes, Funk, Krepski, et al, 2022). These experiences expand their professional identities as knowers of science and as scholars of teaching, especially critical to advancing work in culturally responsive science teaching (Wallace, Howes, Funk, Pincus, et al, 2022). Taken together, these five features (opportunities to practice teaching strategies, the availability of science‐specific tools and scaffolds, a recognition of the continuum of learning (Feiman–Nemser, 2001), the cohort design, opportunities to engage in scholarship on teaching) can explain the consistency of impacts we see across our professional development programs, which include improved student outcomes and teacher retention within the district (Weinstein et al, 2010; Weinstein, 2017a, 2017b, 2021; see also Hammerness et al, 2023; Wallace, Hammerness, et al, 2022).…”