Chapter 23: Becoming a Postmodern Stem Teacher Leader in the Age of Inference

It is doubtful anyone, even the legislators who are proponents of accountability and standardized testing, would argue that a single assessment given at the end of the school year is an accurate measurement of what a student knows. However, the current accountability era in which we live has placed a great emphasis on standardized assessments that are too narrow in scope to assess complex indicators of student knowledge and skill development. Teachers are being evaluated and schools are receiving funding based on these test scores, resulting in a “teaching to the test” culture that detracts from the rich, meaningful, learning experiences described by Dewey (1938) in Experience and Education. The question then becomes how we, as educators, can guarantee equitable education and create meaningful learning experiences for all students while still working within accountability mandates. This is a question with which teachers and scholars have been struggling for some time now. If finding such an answer was simple, the U.S. education system would not be struggling as it is today. One solution that can be proposed is to empower teachers through leadership, such as mentoring, sharing best practices, and conducting action research. In his book, Five Minds for the Future, Gardner (2008) asks, “What are my obligations as a scientific researcher, a writer, a manager, a leader?” (p. 8). Reading those words, one can begin to question their own role as a STEM educator in the Postmodern Era in which we now live.