Elementary Teacher Professional Learning of Equitable Engineering Pedagogies for Multilingual Students

The need to teach engineering in U.S. elementary schools has been elevated due a heightened focus on STEM and standards reforms such as the Next Generation Science Standards. Yet, most elementary teachers have little preparation in teaching engineering. Additionally, elementary teachers increasingly provide instruction for students who are still learning English as an additional language. However, teachers receive uneven preparation related to instruction for multilingual learners. This project addresses these critical needs through development of a standards-aligned professional learning model for elementary teachers of multilingual learners. This interdisciplinary approach is innovative in its effort to provide teachers with sustained time to reflect on what they believe about language, their teaching of linguistically and racially minoritized students, and their interactions with multilingual students around engineering content. Using a participatory and collaborative approach, experts in literacy, language, and engineering will work with elementary teachers to develop strategies for how teachers can view students’ multilingualism as an asset to engineering. This asset-based approach has wider implications as teachers’ shifting language beliefs may result in the creation of learning environments that provide linguistically minoritized students with expanded opportunities for identifying with engineering as a discipline or tool for understanding other STEM subjects. This three-year Exploratory Project will engage elementary teachers (n = 18) in a sustained professional learning community to learn about engineering content and pedagogy and explore the intersections of race and language surrounding engineering education. By noticing how languages are positioned in their classroom, teachers will be able to develop strategies for re-positioning the linguistic, cultural, and representational contributions of multilingual students as core intellectual resources within their classrooms. Using design-based research with an emphasis on qualitative data generation and analysis through positioning and language ideologies, this study will explore: 1) whether and how teachers’ language ideologies shifted in relation to specific elements of the professional learning experience, 2) how teachers’ language ideologies mapped onto their engineering pedagogies, and 3) how these pedagogies offered (or failed to offer) multilingual students with discursive resources for identifying with engineering. Triangulated analyses of results from validated instruments, as well as observational, interview, and reflective video data, will result in robust research regarding elements of professional learning experiences that contribute to linguistically inclusive engineering pedagogies. This project will result in a standards-aligned professional learning model for teachers of multilingual learners, as well as multimedia curricular materials for educators and guides for providers of teacher professional development. The project has potential to contribute to increased quality of teaching and increased time on teaching of engineering. It will also contribute to positive stances toward students’ linguistic and racial backgrounds since the professional learning model, curricular materials, and strategies that it will create will be shared with other elementary teachers who are striving to teach science and engineering to students who are linguistically and racially diverse. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. 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.