Strengthening and Developing Partnerships in East Tennessee for Community Engagement in Artificial Intelligence Education

Although there is a push to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 education, the novelty of AI means that little is known about what schools, teachers, students, and parents know, need and expect regarding AI in classrooms. Lack of formal AI education and professional development training poses a significant challenge for educators, parents, and students across the nation. The lack of access to AI knowledge and training is especially significant in rural high-needs communities where schools are under-resourced. This year-long partnership development project has three key goals : (1) strengthen and expand existing research-practice partnerships (RPPs) with East Tennessee teachers and school leaders, (2) develop new RPPs with parents and students enrolled in East Tennessee middle and high schools, and (3) co-construct a shared vision for AI that aligns with the needs and assets of the partner community. The project’s work will be guided by an RPP leadership team comprising three educational researchers, two secondary school teachers, two school leaders, four parents, and six middle and high school students. This leadership team is critical for accurately capturing the community's needs and assets and facilitating the co-construction of a shared vision for AI education in East Tennessee. This project is supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which 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. RPPs seek to cultivate long-term collaborations that are designed to bring together individuals of varying expertise to co-construct knowledge to transform and improve education. This partnership development project will focus on the following: (1) establishing trust and teamwork through community learning activities, (2) developing an agreements document that unites the needs and interests of all partners (teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and researchers), and 3) building a model for change that leads to research and development efforts. Community building will involve a Value Mapping activity with the RPP leadership team to make values, experiences, and perspectives about AI more explicit. Results from the Value Mapping activity, along with the other structured and semi-structured activities such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys, will inform the construction of the shared vision for AI education in East Tennessee. To ensure alignment between project activities and project goals, an external evaluator, using a culturally responsive and comprehensive evaluation plan, will provide formative and summative feedback throughout the project. All involved partners will receive a summary of the deidentified data collected from the project. Final decisions about the shared vision statement will be made jointly by the RPP leadership team based on information gathered from (1) interview transcripts, (2) focus group notes, observations, and transcripts, (3) survey responses, (4) summary documents from community building activities and meetings with the RPP leadership team, and (5) feedback from the external evaluator. At the conclusion of this project, the deliverables encompass a collectively crafted vision of AI in Education in East Tennessee, alongside a model offering a blueprint for STEM education initiatives centered on community collaboration and research-practice partnerships. 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.