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

文化和语言不同的学生在进入STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)课堂时不会把他们的语言模式留在门口。因此，了解语言障碍，包括系统的语言观念，如何影响STEM的学习和成就，特别是对非裔美国青年来说，是很重要的。在国家科学基金会的支持下，巴尔的摩县马里兰大学的克里斯汀·L·马林森博士和威廉与玛丽学院的安妮·H·查里蒂·哈德利博士正在调查K-12 STEM教育者对学校社会、文化和语言标准的理解。随着对非裔美国学生语言的特别关注，调查人员正在努力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。研究人员正在从一组来自公立和私立学校的60名K-12 STEM教育者那里收集信息，他们在大巴尔的摩、马里兰州、弗吉尼亚州汉普顿路和弗吉尼亚州里士满为非裔美国学生授课。他们使用定性和定量的方法，评估了教育者对语言变异的知识和态度，对语言变异的反应，以及对语言变异在学生评估中所起的作用的理解，特别是与他们的非裔美国学生的关系。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信息材料。收集的关于语言变异的信息以及关于STEM语境中语言的系统想法有助于扩展语言学家的理论和模型，以了解一系列教育环境中语言、文化和社会影响之间的关系。这项研究的结果涉及课堂上对语言差异的反应、教师对语言差异的态度，以及非裔美国学生语言的象征性和结构性效应之间的相互作用，解释了文化和语言差异学生仍然存在的机会差距，特别是在STEM教育背景下。研究结果说明了在课堂上教育K-12 STEM教育者有关语言和文化问题的最佳做法。这项研究正在通过教育工作者讲习班、教师设计的读物和为教育工作者介绍该项目并确保其研究成果得到广泛传播的网站，立即将其实际应用到教育工作者的教学和实践中。

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.