Context, Culture & STEM Education

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Intellectual Merit: The proposed study is designed to explore ways in which American Indian and Alaskan Native students and their teachers in selected communities make use of cultural experiences relevant to science and mathematics education. The proposed research is intended to provide a stronger evidentiary base to support sustained improvements in STEM settings and their subsequent diffusion. The findings from the proposed research may inform the development of STEM education in multiple educational contexts.The goals of the study are (1) to determine how community and cultural concepts, and student experiences with their heritage, impact the ways they make sense of the mathematics and science they encounter in school; (2) to understand what factors are critical to properly identifying and measuring the ways in which context and culture shape the learning of science and mathematics in American Indian and Alaskan Native populations; (3) to determine ways in which teachers' practices incorporate and build upon students' experiences as conventional forms of STEM knowledge are introduced and developed in school; and (4) to develop a research-based framework and methods that can help indigenous groups assess the forms of culturally-based science and mathematics knowledge that exist within communities, and how those local forms can be related to the ones that are recognized in formal education settings.To learn more about how to address these needs, in year one researchers will visit seven communities to select four that have the most prominent and varied culturally-related science and mathematics instructional programs and that offer opportunities for strong research collaboration. During the main data collection carried out in year two, researchers will spend six person-weeks spread over two field visits at each of the four selected communities. Data will be gathered systematically in five areas: sociocultural context, influence of place, interpersonal interactions, ethnically-related knowledge, and teacher practices of presenting conventional STEM knowledge. Data collection during a final visit will focus on extending understanding and addressing areas for investigation that arise from iterative analysis in year two.Broader Impact: This study addresses the insufficient research base on teaching and learning related to the mathematics and science education of rural, indigenous students. The knowledge developed in this study will contribute explicitly to the ongoing dialogue about how culturally different approaches to knowledge and knowledge construction can be reconciled and beneficially incorporated in the classroom as part of the pursuit of equitable and powerful STEM education for all students. The framework and methods identified within this comparative exploratory study will form the basis for future large-scale investigations of their applicability to other populations.