Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The U.S. has a problem: it is not effectively utilizing all the bright young minds available to its science & engineering workforce. In 2012 the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reported that a million more STEM professionals in the U.S. workforce were needed over the next decade. PCAST reported that the situation is far worse for underrepresented students, who make up 70% of undergraduate students but only 45% of the STEM degrees. Recent reports suggest women in science and engineering have made small gains, while historically underrepresented ethnic groups (Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians) continue to be significantly underrepresented. The lack of diversity in the U.S. workforce is not reflected in the USA population nor is it reflected in the undergraduate student population. As the U.S. aspires to retain a leadership role in research and development in an increasingly diverse and globally interconnected society, this disparity is unsustainable. What if having more culturally interesting, more culturally responsive STEM classes is a way of increasing the diversity of the science and engineering workforce in the U.S.? This study focuses on a topic that has been generally overlooked by the STEM educational community, but one that is directly relevant to student engagement and learning outcomes: the role of culture as a variable in student learning. This study examines how different pedagogical approaches shape student outcomes in Astronomy 101 courses. In a comparative study two different pedagogical approaches were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods in a semiexperimental nonequivalent group research design. The theories of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), active learning theory in STEM, and Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) ground this approach. The findings of this study show important gains for all students. Underrepresented minority students (URM) in the course with increased culturally responsive pedagogy were exceptionally engaged and learning gains soared. By measure of the concept inventory, the URM students in the course with increased culturally responsive pedagogy outperformed all other students in the study. As the U.S. will have a non-white majority by the year 2045 and diversity in STEM faculty lags there is a need for tangible, evidence-based, culture-based curriculum and pedagogy. There is a problem and based on the evidence found in this study, there is a way to fix it. / The U.S. has a problem: it is not effectively utilizing all the bright young minds available to its science & engineering workforce. In 2012 the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reported that a million more STEM professionals in the U.S. workforce were needed over the next decade. PCAST reported that the situation is far worse for underrepresented students, who make up 70% of undergraduate students but only 45% of the STEM degrees. Recent reports suggest women in science and engineering have made small gains, while historically underrepresented ethnic groups (Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians) continue to be significantly underrepresented. The lack of diversity in the U.S. workforce is not reflected in the USA population nor is it reflected in the undergraduate student population. As the U.S. aspires to retain a leadership role in research and development in an increasingly diverse and globally interconnected society, this disparity is unsustainable. What if having more culturally interesting, more culturally responsive STEM classes is a way of increasing the diversity of the science and engineering workforce in the U.S.? This study focuses on a topic that has been generally overlooked by the STEM educational community, but one that is directly relevant to student engagement and learning outcomes: the role of culture as a variable in student learning. This study examines how different pedagogical approaches shape student outcomes in Astronomy 101 courses. In a comparative study two different pedagogical approaches were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods in a semiexperimental nonequivalent group research design. The theories of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), active learning theory in STEM, and Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) ground this approach. The findings of this study show important gains for all students. Underrepresented minority students (URM) in the course with increased culturally responsive pedagogy were exceptionally engaged and learning gains soared. By measure of the concept inventory, the URM students in the course with increased culturally responsive pedagogy outperformed all other students in the study. As the U.S. will have a non-white majority by the year 2045 and diversity in STEM faculty lags there is a need for tangible, evidence-based, culture-based curriculum and pedagogy. There is a problem and based on the evidence found in this study, there is a way to fix it.

At a Midwestern university, White novice teachers struggled to be prepared to implement culturally responsive pedagogy. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore White novice teachers' perceptions about how their higher education classroom experiences had equipped them for teaching a culturally diverse population of students. The theoretical/conceptual frameworks of this study were White identity development theory, a multicultural education framework, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching. Data were collected by interviewing 8 White novice teachers to convey their perceptions of teaching culturally diverse classrooms and how these perceptions influenced their behaviors. Data were organized by organizational, substantive, and theoretical categories. The themes that emerged from the data were the need for additional cultural knowledge, the implementation of supportive measures, barriers to supporting cultural diversity in classrooms, and the importance of cultural interpersonal skills. This study may lead to positive social change for teacher educators, novice teachers, as well as school districts by developing their understanding of how to support White novice teachers with strategies for teaching culturally diverse students.

In an urban district, Surfside School personnel were concerned that student literacy proficiency levels were low during 2011-2014 and teachers had not been able to close the achievement gap despite a focus on literacy practices and literacy professional development (PD) provided by the district. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators in relation to the best instructional practices for increasing self-efficacy when teaching literacy skills and related literacy PD for teachers. Knowles' andragogy theory and Vygotsky's social learning theory formed the theoretical foundation of this study, which hold that PD should provide teachers with explicit instruction and opportunities for collaboration. The research questions focused on how PD helps teachers improve instructional practices. The purposeful sample consisted of 4 middle school teachers and 3 administrators and was collected through surveys, observations, semi-structured interviews, and archival documents. Data analysis consisted of an inductive approach of axial coding and categorizing the interview and observational data to derive themes. Themes supporting the findings indicated targeted PD and instructional coaching (IC) focused on evidence based literacy practices for low-income students using culturally relevant pedagogy were needed to improve teacher self-efficacy and student learning. Findings also indicated that the PD trainings could work more effectively if the teachers had more time to collaborate with the IC. Thus, the resulting project provides collaborative PD and IC targeting literacy practices using culturally relevant pedagogy. Teacher use of these practices will promote social change by improving the students' literacy support in the target district.

This study examined an urban school district in the southern United States that continued to experience student achievement gaps despite the implementation of initiatives as the African American Success Initiative. The school leadership needed a deeper understanding regarding what strategies were successful with closing the achievement gap. Using Gay's theory of cultural responsive pedagogy, the purpose of this study was to identify inward attributes, outward strategies, and professional development perceptions of teachers with no achievement gap among ethnically diverse students. Employing an instrumental case study design, 8 middle school reading teachers who closed the reading achievement gap were interviewed; these narratives were supplemented with classroom observations and archival data of district-administered students' surveys for the teachers, professional development plans, and teacher lesson plans. Data were analyzed using comparative and inductive analysis and were thematically coded. Findings indicated that teachers who closed the achievement gap shared culturally responsive characteristics and behaviors, including a caring attitude, high expectations, content relevance, and a belief that their existing Professional Development (PD) was not specific to the needs of teachers working in high-minority, low-socioeconomic urban school environments. A 3-day PD was designed to produce positive social change by reframing the beliefs, responses, and approaches to teaching minority students, allowing teachers to develop stronger teacher-student relationships, tolerance, and strategies, to ultimately increase student motivation and achievement.

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The purpose of this qualitative, critical race analysis study is to explore how White faculty conceptualize and apply critical race theory (CRT) and culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) to curricula within a college of education and how the perceptions of their students’ identities influence specific pedagogical decisions. The researcher sought to extend the research on CRT in education by analyzing specific, detailed cases and incorporating purposeful sampling by selecting participants who match specific study criteria, i.e. graduate-level White faculty located in Tennessee who teach in programs of education. This study was limited to six faculty in a college of education (in educational leadership and teacher education graduate programs) at a college in Tennessee. This study provided a framework for additional studies that may assist with exploring how faculty pedagogical decisions in the classroom could be impacted by incorporating CRT/CRP in courses and across curricula in educational leadership and teacher education graduate programs. A total of four themes emerged following the analysis of findings from this study: 1) CRT and CRP in Curriculum involved participants expressing awareness for the need to address race-related issues, e.g., race, diversity, equity, and inclusion matters, in their course curricula. In addition, this awareness highlighted their concerns for departmentwide consistency across course curricula/programs and not just within their isolated courses. 2) CRT/CRP are Novel with Room to Improve was developed based on over half of the participants discussing aspects related to how CRT and CRP within the realm of teaching are nascent and only beginning to be implemented. 3) Faculty Conceptualization of CRT/CRP involved participants expressing an awareness of CRT/CRP but not a full conceptualization of the matter or how to incorporate it in the classroom to address race-related issues (diversity, equity, and inclusion matters) in their course curricula. Lastly, 4) Student Perspective and Composition was another common theme expressed. With race and diversity being the focus, many participants discussed student composition and student perspectives as being relational.

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<p>The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) promote a new vision of K-12 science education that emphasizes the importance of integrating engineering practices into science education. Recent engineering studies have highlighted design approaches that focus on designers’ empathy, such as human-centered design (Hess & Fila, 2016a; Kouprie & Visser, 2009; Walther et al., 2017). Empathic engineering design approaches can help students understand how engineers understand various users’ contexts and develop effective design solutions. Furthermore, empathy is a key element in cross-cultural education (Gay, 2002; Webb et al., 2012) because it can help teachers create positive interactions with diverse students (Arghode et al., 2013; Warren, 2014). Empathy is an important attribute highlighted in both engineering and cross-cultural education. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to comprehend and integrate the principles of Human-Centered Design (HCD) approaches to provide more authentic and holistic engineering education. </p> <p>This study explored elementary preservice teachers’ competence in planning and implementing an empathic engineering design lesson plan in cross-cultural STEM education by applying a module. The module consisted of a researcher-developed elementary science methods unit on designing empathic integrated STEM instruction. Using a convergent mixed methods design (Creswell & Clark, 2018) and 16 participants, this study investigated preservice teachers’ understanding of empathic integrated STEM instruction before and after the module. This study utilized the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) to examine preservice teachers’ levels of empathy and the Teaching Engineering Self-Efficacy Scale (Yoon et al., 2014) to measure their self-efficacy. For qualitative data, reflection papers, empathic design lesson plans, and interview transcripts were collected. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) was employed to identify patterns and relationships within the data.</p> <p>The analysis of a paired samples t-test and a related-samples Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a significant difference between the means of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy scores before and after the module. However, there was no significant difference in the means of their empathy scores. According to qualitative data analysis, preservice teachers understood the role of empathy in both engineering and cross-cultural education. The module enhanced preservice teachers’ pedagogical strategies regarding empathic techniques and culturally and socially responsive pedagogies. Preservice teachers also discovered the benefits of empathic integrated STEM instruction including broadening one’s perspectives, understanding the value of inclusive designs, and enhancing students’ 21st century skills. After experiencing the module, they felt confident in integrating empathic integrated STEM instruction and recognizing potential challenges of implementation. The study findings show that empathic integrated STEM instruction can be a way to support preservice teachers’ understanding of engineering pedagogical strategies, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the features of integrated STEM instruction. </p>