Building Capacity for STEM Teachers with Cultural Responsiveness

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, this Capacity Building project aims to serve the national interest in high-quality STEM teaching. It will do so by building the capacity to help secondary mathematics teachers engage in culturally responsive teaching practices. Specifically, this project will modify the STEM teacher education curriculum at the University of Florida St. Petersburg to include training in culturally responsive teaching. Nationally, there is a significant need for grades 6-12 mathematics and science teachers. This teacher shortage is compounded by the need for teachers who are culturally responsive, which is the knowledge and skills that enable one to relate effectively to other cultures and, thus, to better meet the needs of diverse learners. By making the proposed curriculum modifications, this project is expected to lay the foundation to support the development of teachers who have robust knowledge of STEM content and well-developed skills in effective STEM instructional techniques. This project is a partnership between the University of Florida St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Schools, the 7th largest school district in Florida and the 26th largest in the US. Nearly half of the Pinellas County students are from an underrepresented minority group and just over half receive free or reduced lunches. Consequently, the need for culturally responsive teaching practices in Pinellas County Schools is critical. This need is further underscored by the fact that underrepresented minority students and students of lower socio-economic status are also significantly less successful in mathematics and science. To address this need, the project partnership will facilitate the development of a culturally responsive teaching program and examine whether the program produces teachers who are well prepared to teach in high need schools, and who will be successful and persist in their teaching career. Because many other US school districts have diverse student populations, this project has the potential to improve many other teacher preparation programs. Thus, a goal of this project is to develop a structure that can be replicated elsewhere to ensure that other STEM education programs can provide effective teacher preparation that includes cultural responsiveness. The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts and experienced, exemplary K-12 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.