Broadening Participation

Creating Inclusive PreK–12 STEM Learning Environments

Brief CoverBroadening participation in PreK–12 STEM provides ALL students with STEM learning experiences that can prepare them for civic life and the workforce.

Author/Presenter

Malcom Butler

Cory Buxton

Odis Johnson Jr.

Leanne Ketterlin-Geller

Catherine McCulloch

Natalie Nielsen

Arthur Powell

Year
2018
Short Description

This brief offers insights from National Science Foundation-supported research for education leaders and policymakers who are broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM). Many of these insights confirm knowledge that has been reported in research literature; however, some offer a different perspective on familiar challenges.

“I Really Got to Think About My Background, Their Background, and How Do We Come Together on Something?”: One Emergent Mathematics Teacher Leader's Reflexive Journey with Social Justice Mathematics

This 2-year qualitative case study focuses on one emergent mathematics teacher leader, Mr. Miller, and his conceptualization of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM). SJM is a justice-oriented pedagogical approach where students simultaneously learn dominant mathematics and explore social injustices to take action toward justice. Using Rodriguez's (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1998, 35, 589–622) sociotransformative constructivism framework, findings illuminate how dialogic conversation, authentic activity, and metacognition supported Mr.

Author/Presenter

Kari Kokka

Year
2024
Short Description

This 2-year qualitative case study focuses on one emergent mathematics teacher leader, Mr. Miller, and his conceptualization of Social Justice Mathematics (SJM). SJM is a justice-oriented pedagogical approach where students simultaneously learn dominant mathematics and explore social injustices to take action toward justice.

Re-imagining Science Education Research Toward a Language for Science Perspective

With a decade passing since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), it is timely to reflect and consider the extent to which the promise of science teaching and learning that values and centers learners’ varied epistemologies for scientific sensemaking has been realized. We argue that this potential, in part, lies in the hands of our science education research community becoming aware and intentional with how we situate learners’ language-related resources and practices in our work.

Author/Presenter

María González-Howard

Sage Andersen

Karina Méndez Pérez

Samuel Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

With a decade passing since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), it is timely to reflect and consider the extent to which the promise of science teaching and learning that values and centers learners’ varied epistemologies for scientific sensemaking has been realized. We argue that this potential, in part, lies in the hands of our science education research community becoming aware and intentional with how we situate learners’ language-related resources and practices in our work.

Thinking Critically, Coding Creatively: Elevating Social Studies Through Inquiry-based Learning and Computer Science Integration

Weaving computer science into the fabric of social studies, rather than teaching it as an isolated skill, makes both subjects more relevant, engaging, and beneficial to students.

Berson, M. J., Berson, I. R., Franklin, K. L., Fawley, V. N., Shank, P. S., Dovi, R. E., Gasca, S., Hochberg, E. D., Berstein, D. (2024). Thinking critically, coding creatively: Elevating social studies through inquiry-based learning and computer science integration. Social Education, 98-103.

Author/Presenter

Michael J. Berson

Ilene R. Berson

Kristen L. Franklin

Valerie N. Fawley

Perry S. Shank

Rebecca E. Dovi

Santiago Gasca

Eric D. Hochberg

Debra Bernstein

Year
2024
Short Description

Weaving computer science into the fabric of social studies, rather than teaching it as an isolated skill, makes both subjects more relevant, engaging, and beneficial to students.

Construct It! What’s in a Name? Collecting, Organizing, and Representing Data

Build a classroom community by building representations and visualizations of data related to students’ names.

Thanheiser, E., Koestler, C., Sugimoto, A. T., & Felton-Koestler, M. D. (2023). Construct it! What’s in a name? Collecting, organizing, and representing data. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, 116(10), 746-752.

Author/Presenter

Eva Thanheiser

Courtney Koestler

Amanda T. Sugimoto

Mathew D. Felton-Koestler

Year
2023
Short Description

Build a classroom community by building representations and visualizations of data related to students’ names.

Construct It! What’s in a Name? Collecting, Organizing, and Representing Data

Build a classroom community by building representations and visualizations of data related to students’ names.

Thanheiser, E., Koestler, C., Sugimoto, A. T., & Felton-Koestler, M. D. (2023). Construct it! What’s in a name? Collecting, organizing, and representing data. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, 116(10), 746-752.

Author/Presenter

Eva Thanheiser

Courtney Koestler

Amanda T. Sugimoto

Mathew D. Felton-Koestler

Year
2023
Short Description

Build a classroom community by building representations and visualizations of data related to students’ names.

It All Adds Up: Connecting Home and School Through Family Math

Considered a core component of children’s foundational cognitive development, early mathematics experiences can support children’s long-term academic success. Teachers and families alike share the common goal of wanting children to succeed developmentally, socially, and academically. Given the importance of early mathematics to academic success in all subjects, children need and deserve to build a robust knowledge of early math concepts in their earliest years.

Author/Presenter

Jessica Mercer Young

Kristen E. Reed

Year
2023
Short Description

Given the importance of early mathematics to academic success in all subjects, children need and deserve to build a robust knowledge of early math concepts in their earliest years. In this chapter, we consider the approach of the Young Mathematicians (YM) project at EDC, which for the past ten years, has partnered with families, teachers, and early childhood programs in richly diverse communities with large populations of students of color, linguistically minoritized students, and students living in poverty, to support math learning across home and school environments.

Co-designing a Justice-Centered STEM Teacher Professional Learning Project

This chapter describes an ongoing research-practice partnership with in-service teachers in communities across Oregon focused on broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Broadening participation is essential for creating more justice-centered STEM in our society and cannot occur without families and communities working in partnership with educators to ensure that community resources, needs, and multi-generational perspectives are centered in this work.

Author/Presenter

Cory Buxton

Karla Hale

Jay Well

Diana Crespo-Camacho

Barbara Ettenauer

Felisha Dake

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2024
Short Description

This chapter describes an ongoing research-practice partnership with in-service teachers in communities across Oregon focused on broadening participation in STEM fields. We explore how our design-based work with teachers is shaping our collective efforts to enact new language and science practices for supporting students’ justice-centered STEM meaning-making.

Justice-Centered STEM Education with Multilingual Learners: Conceptual Framework and Initial Inquiry into Pre-service Teachers’ Sense-Making

When pressing societal challenges (e.g., COVID-19, access to clean water) are sidelined in science classrooms, science education fails to leverage the knowledge and experiences of minoritized students in school, thus reproducing injustices in society. Our conceptual framework for justice-centered STEM education engages all students in multiple STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to explain and design solutions to pressing societal challenges and their disproportionate impact on minoritized groups.

Author/Presenter

Scott E. Grapin

Alison Haas

N’Dyah McCoy

Okhee Lee

Year
2023
Short Description

Our conceptual framework for justice-centered STEM education engages all students in multiple STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to explain and design solutions to pressing societal challenges and their disproportionate impact on minoritized groups. In the first part of this article, we extend our conceptual framework by articulating the affordances of justice-centered STEM education for one minoritized student group that has been traditionally denied meaningful STEM learning experiences: multilingual learners (MLs). In the second part of the article, we report on an initial inquiry into how 14 undergraduate pre-service teachers made sense of our conceptual framework after participating in lessons from our COVID-19 instructional unit.

Engineering Connections in Culturally-Responsive Mathematical Modeling Problems

This poster presents findings from design and early implementation work of the NSF DRK-12 project which positions 6th and 7th grade students as decision makers in their own learning, integrating culturally responsive mathematical modeling problems into their regular curriculum. We take a sociocritical perspective on modeling, supporting students in using mathematics to understand their life experiences and, when appropriate, to challenge the existing social order (e.g., Aguirre et al., 2019; Author, 2021; Cirillo et al., 2016; Felton-Koestler, 2020).

Author/Presenter

Corey E. Brady

Hyunyi Jung

Jose David de Leon Alejandro

Chonika C Coleman-King

Zandra de Araujo

Kayla Sutcliffe

Year
2023
Short Description

This poster presents findings from design and early implementation work of the NSF DRK-12 project which positions 6th and 7th grade students as decision makers in their own learning, integrating culturally responsive mathematical modeling problems into their regular curriculum. We take a sociocritical perspective on modeling, supporting students in using mathematics to understand their life experiences and, when appropriate, to challenge the existing social order. By learning to recognize mathematical dimensions of their emerging identities in classroom settings, we hope to inspire excitement about mathematics and boost students’ experiences of mathematical agency.