Building Leadership among Science Teachers in Rural Regions: Designing, Developing, and Implementing a Science Teacher Leadership Academy

该项目旨在满足国家在高需求的农村地区培养高素质科学教师领导人的需要。鉴于农村地区科学教育的质量和数量的差异，该项目旨在支持和发展两批K-8级硕士教学研究员（MTF）成为南卡罗来纳州农村地区的科学教师领导者。一个队列将由12名K-5年级经验丰富的模范教师和12名6 - 8年级经验丰富的模范教师组成。这个为期五年的项目由几个部分组成，包括领导力模拟、夏季研究所和夏季会议。每个MTF将承担的计划的其他要素是完成旨在支持特定学习需求和目标的差异化在线模块，实施专业学习和领导计划，与校长合作，参加并出席全国科学教师协会（NSTA）会议，并在MTF教室接受差异化辅导。该计划的目的是让MTF专注于成为专家科学教师的头两年，同时了解自己作为领导者，并开始思考如何发生变化。在该计划的最后三年，重点是发展MTF作为领导者，继续努力磨练领导知识和技能。最终，将鼓励MTF在他们的学校和地区的指导，领导专业发展，并寻求其他方式来支持其他科学教师。在这样做的过程中，SC北部地区的科学教师领导人数将增加，SC北部的科学教育将受到影响。克莱姆森大学的这个项目包括与WestEd的Making Sense of Science和高需求的农村学区合作（韦尔浅滩学区、劳伦斯县学区和联合县学区），项目目标包括在五年的时间里为两批教师实施有区别的专业发展和辅导，以培养能够发挥作用的教师领导者。改变农村学校和教育体制。本研究以情境学习和科学教师领导者框架为基础，试图探讨以下问题。1)如何通过教师领导改变农村学校系统？2)农村在哪些方面支持或阻碍教师领导？3）在支持严格的科学教育的农村空间中，有哪些关键的杠杆点？这些问题的混合方法调查的目的是产生的结果，预计将有助于专业学习的理解和STEM研究文献中的教师领导力的不足领域。项目成果将通过国家和地区渠道广泛传播，以改善K-12科学教育。该项目将与南卡罗来纳州教育部合作，共享异步模块，这些模块可以由地区和州学科领域教练复制，作为教师定期专业学习和发展的一部分。这项研究解决了教育中的一个重要问题-目前缺乏STEM学科的教师领导者，特别是在农村社区-目标是增加SC北部地区科学教师领导者的数量。这个轨道3：硕士教师奖学金项目是通过罗伯特诺伊斯教师奖学金计划（诺伊斯）的支持。诺伊斯计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人士成为有效的K-12 STEM教师和经验丰富的模范K-12教师，成为高需求学区的STEM硕士教师。它还支持对高需求学区的K-12 STEM教师的有效性和保留的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national need to prepare high-quality science teacher leaders in high-need, rural areas. Given the disparities in the quality and quantity of science education in rural spaces, this project is designed to support and develop two cohorts of grade K-8 Master Teaching Fellows (MTFs) into science teacher leaders in rural South Carolina (SC). One cohort will be comprised of twelve grade K-5 experienced and exemplary teachers and one cohort of twelve grade 6-8 exemplary and experienced teachers. This five-year program consists of several components, including a Leadership Simulation, a Summer Institute, and Summer Conferences. Additional elements of the program that each MTF will undertake are the completion of differentiated online modules designed to support specific learning needs and goals, implementation of a professional learning and leadership plan, collaboration with principals, attending and presenting at the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) conference, and receiving differentiated coaching in MTF classrooms. The program is designed to allow MTFs to focus on becoming expert science teachers the first two years while learning about themselves as leaders and beginning to think about how change occurs. In the last three years of the program, the focus aims on developing MTFs as leaders, continuing to work on honing leadership knowledge and skills. Ultimately, MTFs will be encouraged to lead in their schools and districts by mentoring, leading professional development, and seeking other ways to support other science teachers. In doing so, the number of science teacher leaders in the SC upstate region will be increased and science education in upstate SC will be impacted. This project at Clemson University includes partnerships with WestEd’s Making Sense of Science and high-need, rural school districts (Ware Shoals School District, Laurens County School District, and Union County School District), in the upstate region of SC. Project goals include the implementation of differentiated professional development and coaching over the course of five years for two cohorts of teachers to produce teacher leaders who can effect change within their rural schools and school systems. This work is grounded in situated learning and the science teacher leader framework and seeks to explore the following questions. 1) How does change happen in a rural school system via teacher leaders? 2) In what ways does rurality support or hinder teacher leadership? and 3) What are key leverage points in rural spaces that support rigorous science education? A mixed-method investigation of these questions is intended to result in findings that are expected to contribute to the understanding of professional learning and the under-examined field of teacher leadership in the STEM research literature. Project results will be widely disseminated through national and regional channels to improve K-12 science education. The project will collaborate with the South Carolina Department of Education to share asynchronous modules that can be replicated by districts and state subject area coaches as part of their regular professional learning and development for teachers. This study addresses a significant issue in education - the current absence of teacher leaders in STEM disciplines, particularly in rural communities - with the goal of increasing the number of science teacher leaders in the SC upstate region. This Track 3: Master Teacher Fellowships project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the effectiveness and retention of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.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.