Chapter 14: Teacher Transformation in Urban Elementary Classrooms Engaged with a Transdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Stem) Initiative

This chapter explores how 25 urban elementary teachers constructed STEM learning and teaching identities by engaging with The STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) project, a 5-year research collaboration, between The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education, School of Engineering, and Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS). Participating teachers from seven elementary schools engaged with a STEM curriculum and professional development intervention for lengths of time ranging from less than a year to 4 years; similarly, teachers’ general experience in the field and in teaching science varied considerably, from first-year teachers to teachers with over 10 years of experience. We use a positional identity framework (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, & Cain, 1998; Moore, 2008) to examine how teachers positioned themselves in relation to the dominant discourse of school science (Melville & Bartley, 2013) in high-poverty, urban schools where the majority of students are Latinx and/or African-American. Narrative analysis of qualitative data from two teacher focus groups and 16 semi-structured interviews with teachers revealed a pattern of emerging agency: Teachers constructed individual STEM learning and teaching identities, leveraging the project’s STEM curriculum and professional development intervention, resisting the assessment-driven dominant discourse that privileges literacy and mathematics in today’s elementary classroom. Although teachers identified a number of obstacles that impeded the successful implementation of STEM learning in the classroom, many expressed an emotional commitment to the long-term value of STEM learning for their students. We suggest that this transformational teaching identity could be critical for supporting the STEM learning of students historically underserved in American schools.