Project Profile

Developing a culturally responsive pedagogical framework for STEM self-efficacy and career interest in the middle grades

Description

The goal of this project is to promote STEM self-efficacy and career interest among youth from the Navajo Nation through relevant and meaningful experiences with integrated STEM during their critical academic development years in middle school. To achieve this goal, the project partners with key stakeholder groups to co-create of a set of guidelines for STEM education that align to the cultural frameworks, interests, and needs of the Navajo Nation.  The guidelines are used to support the design and implementation of a teacher professional development program and student curriculum for rural middle schools serving students from the Navajo Nation. The working groups charged with developing the guidelines will include representatives from the Navajo Nation, STEM professional organizations, and Diné Education leaders.  The project engages teachers in professional development sessions in which they evaluate and discuss ways to apply the guidelines for cultural competence in STEM education to the middle-school context, learn how to use data-driven visualizations to support STEM disciplinary integration, and design and implement project-based learning units for their students that are technology rich and culturally responsive.  Participating teachers have professional development and technical assistance support throughout the year as they implement a project-based STEM curricular unit focused on creation of data-driven visualizations of an identified community topic. The project activities will improve participating teachers' competence and confidence in working with technology in their classrooms in a way that is responsive to the cultural frameworks and perspectives of their students and communities. Project deliverables (guidelines, professional development model, and student STEM curriculum) will be available to education leaders and interested practitioners to support their own transition to culturally competent STEM. The project seeks to advance knowledge regarding tools and strategies for transforming STEM teaching and learning experiences for Indigenous students. Success of the project can lead to larger scale-up efforts to transform STEM education policy and practice for schools anddistricts serving Indigenous students. The project follows a design-based research methodology.  The project research will include multiple iterative cycles of development, implementation, analysis, and redesign with three cohorts of two schools each (estimated total of 60 teachers and 1,500 students). Throughout each cycle of implementation and improvement of the professional development model, the project partners analyze and refine their research instruments and process, with input from stakeholders. With respect to teacher change, the project assesses teacher efficacy and perceived competence through survey measures.  Observations of the professional development, focus groups, and analyses of the teachers? lesson plans and units will also inform the analysis of data from teachers. Student impacts are measured through career interest and learning activation surveys, curriculum embedded assessments, observations of student learning, and formative feedback. The layered focus of project research with cultural competence and creation of data-driven visualizations will inform the future design of teacher learning experiences that foster student interest and efficacy in STEM through technology-rich, culturally relevant, and community focused projects.  The research findings related to the effectiveness of using co-created guidelines for cultural competence to guide the design of teacher professional development and student curricular units can be used to inform the development of a set of guiding principles for STEM education serving under-represented groups in STEM. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. 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.

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PROJECT DETAILS

Award Number
1949241
Project Duration
2020 - 2023
Organization(s)
County of Coconino, Flagstaff, AZ
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Project Work State
AZ
Project Status
Active