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）教室时不会把他们的语言模式留在门口。因此，理解语言障碍，包括关于语言的系统思想，如何影响STEM学习和成就，特别是对非裔美国青年来说，是很重要的。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，他们正在努力更全面地了解语言变异和变化是如何影响K-12 STEM教师对语言差异、教学实践和学生评估的判断的。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，这些教育工作者在马里兰州的巴尔的摩、弗吉尼亚州的汉普顿路和弗吉尼亚州的里士满教非裔美国学生。他们使用定性和定量的方法，评估教育工作者对语言变化的知识和态度，在他们的教学法中对语言变化的反应，以及对语言变化在学生评估中扮演的角色的理解，特别是与他们的非裔美国学生有关的角色。此外，研究人员正在与作为教育顾问的参与者合作，为课堂使用设计语言知识丰富的材料。收集到的关于语言变异的信息以及关于STEM背景下语言的系统思想有助于扩展语言学家的理论和模型，以理解在一系列教育环境中语言、文化和社会影响之间的关系。这项研究的结果说明了课堂对语言变化的反应，教师对语言变化的态度，以及非裔美国学生语言的符号和结构效应之间的相互作用，这些因素在解释文化和语言多样性学生（特别是在STEM教育背景下）持续存在的机会差距方面所起的作用。研究结果说明了在课堂上教育K-12 STEM教育工作者关于语言和文化基础问题的最佳实践。这项研究为教育工作者的教学法和实践提供了直接的实际应用，其形式包括教育工作者研讨会、教师设计的阅读材料，以及一个为教育工作者提供的网站，该网站描述了该项目，并确保其研究成果得到广泛传播。

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.