Collaborative Research: Assessing the Results of Sociolinguistic Engagement with K-12 STEM Education in Maryland and Virginia Public and Independent Schools

文化和语言多样化的学生在进入 STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）课堂时不会忘记他们的语言模式。 因此，了解语言障碍（包括关于语言的系统观念）如何影响 STEM 学习和成就，特别是对于非裔美国青年来说，非常重要。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，马里兰大学巴尔的摩分校的 Christine L. Mallinson 博士和威廉玛丽学院的 Anne H. Charity Hudley 博士合作研究人员正在调查 K-12 STEM 教育工作者对学校社会、文化和语言标准的理解。研究人员特别关注非裔美国学生的语言，致力于更全面地了解语言变异和变化如何影响 K-12 STEM 教师对语言差异、教学实践和学生评估的判断。研究人员正在收集来自公立和私立学校的 60 名 K-12 STEM 教育工作者的信息，他们在马里兰州大巴尔的摩、弗吉尼亚州汉普顿路和弗吉尼亚州里士满教授非洲裔美国学生。他们使用定性和定量方法，评估教育工作者对语言变异的了解和态度、教育学中对语言变异的反应，以及对语言变异在学生评估中所起作用的理解，特别是与非裔美国学生相关的评估。此外，研究人员还与担任教育顾问的参与者合作，设计供课堂使用的语言材料。收集的有关语言变异的信息以及 STEM 背景下有关语言的系统思想有助于扩展语言学家的理论和模型，以理解各种教育环境中语言、文化和社会影响之间的关系。这项研究的结果探讨了课堂对语言变异的反应、教师对语言变异的态度以及非裔美国学生语言的符号效应和结构效应之间的相互作用，解释了文化和语言多样化的学生持续存在的机会差距，特别是在 STEM 教育环境中。研究结果揭示了在课堂上对 K-12 STEM 教育工作者进行语言和文化问题教育的最佳实践。这项研究以教育工作者研讨会、教师设计的读物以及一个描述该项目并确保其研究成果得到广泛传播的教育工作者网站的形式，为教育工作者的教学法和实践提供了直接的实际应用。

Culturally and linguistically diverse students do not leave their language patterns at the door when they enter STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) classrooms. Therefore,understanding how linguistic barriers, including systematic ideas about language, affect STEM learning and achievement, particularly for African-American youth, is important. With the support of the National Science Foundation, collaborating investigators Christine L. Mallinson, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Anne H. Charity Hudley, Ph.D., of The College of William and Mary, are investigating K-12 STEM educators' understandings of social, cultural, and linguistic standards in schools. With particular attention to the language of African-American students, the investigators are working toward a fuller understanding of how language variation and change affects K-12 STEM teachers' judgments about language differences, pedagogical practices, and student assessments. The researchers are collecting information from a group of 60 K-12 STEM educators from public and independent schools who teach African-American students in greater Baltimore, Maryland, Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, they are assessing educators' knowledge about and attitudes toward language variation, responses to language variation in their pedagogy, and understanding of the role that language variation plays in student assessment, particularly in relation to their African-American students. In addition, the researchers are working with participants who serve as educator-consultants to design linguistically informed materials for classroom use.Information collected on language variation as well as systematic ideas about language in STEM contexts are contributing to expanding linguists' theories and models for understanding the relationships between linguistic, cultural, and social effects across a range of educational settings. Results from this research are speaking to the roles of classroom-based responses to language variation, teacher attitudes toward language variation, and the interplay between symbolic and structural effects of the language of African-American students in explaining the opportunity gaps that persist for culturally and linguistically diverse students, particularly in STEM educational contexts. Research findings speak to best practices for educating K-12 STEM educators about linguistically and culturally-based issues in the classroom. This research is providing immediate practical application to educators' pedagogy and practice in the form of educator workshops, teacher designed readings, and a website for educators that describes the project and ensures that its research outcomes are broadly disseminated.