Doctoral Dissertation Research: Knowledge Production & Cultural Politics in STEM Pedagogy

在不同的背景和时间里，教授科学的方式有很大的不同。是什么塑造了科学教学？更广泛的政治和文化因素如何与教育者的特征相互作用，影响对科学的理解和教授？这项博士论文研究使用文化人类学和科学技术研究的理论来调查哪些文化、政治和个人因素在不同背景下如何理解和教授科学是最重要的。除了培训研究生外，该项目还向利益攸关方和学术受众广泛传播其成果。结果进一步发展了教育课程。该项目进行了为期一年的民族志研究，以解决两个核心问题：1)科学教育者如何理解更广泛的文化趋势对科学教育学的影响；2)个体特征如何影响科学教育者在不同文化背景下如何教授科学？学生调查员采用参与者观察和深入访谈的方式，对不同机构环境中的科学教育工作者、研究人员和课程开发人员进行多次迭代。该项目采用比较的方法，促进了人们对当不同背景的教育工作者学习如何在不同的机构环境中教学时，科学概念如何转变的理解。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

How science is taught varies considerably across contexts and time. What shapes science instruction? How do broader political and cultural factors interact with educators’ characteristics to affect how science is understood and taught? This doctoral dissertation research uses theory from cultural anthropology and science and technology studies to investigate which cultural, political, and individual factors emerge as most important in shaping how science is understood and taught in different contexts. In addition to training a graduate student, this project disseminates its results broadly to stakeholder and academic audiences. Results further develop educational curricula. This project conducts a year of ethnographic research to address two central questions: 1) How do science educators understand the influence of broader cultural trends on science pedagogy; and 2) How do individual characteristics affect how science educators teach science across different cultural contexts? The student investigator employs participant observation and in-depth interviews with science educators, researchers, and curriculum developers in different institutional settings across multiple iterations. Using a comparative approach, the project advances understanding of how notions of science shift when educators of varying background learn how to teach in different institutional settings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.