african diaspora symposium · ms. tamecia r. jones graduate research assistant, purdue university...

University of Georgia with grant funding provided by the National Science Foundation Award Number DRL-1222560

June 12 -14, 2013

Hilton Atlanta Airport – Atlanta, Georgia

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DEAR PARTICIPANTS:

It is my privilege to welcome you to this mini-symposium on The Results of the African Diaspora: Developing Black Scholars in Science Education for the 21st Century of the United States, Part II. It is a true reflection on

your interest in and dedication to the goal of expanding research that can

improve the learning and teaching of science in the lives of African Americans.

As we all know, our country has a critical need for more scientists in the coming

years. To prepare these scientists we must have well-educated students,

taught and mentored by exceptional science teachers.

At the same time, we are cognizant of the changing makeup of United States

society. We are truly a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society in which all members

need to be engaged and educated. Yet, too often, we have not been fully

inclusive of all students and have not provided the educational support

necessary for the variety of learners in our classrooms. This needs to change, and your collaborative research

efforts are providing an impressive step in this direction.

In this National Science Foundation-funded project, a small network of science education faculty members from

across the nation will conduct micro-research studies on science learning and teaching in mostly rural and urban

areas in the U.S. These studies will eventually provide all students access to more innovative science instructional

materials and instruction. This access is paramount if students are to understand science concepts and ideas, and

engage in meaningful scientifi c data collection, analysis and interpretation. When students experience effective

science activities, especially at the middle school level, there is a greater likelihood they will perform well in science

and may consider science-related college majors and careers.

The outcomes from this project will foster collaborative approaches to addressing research and teaching in

science education, help develop new funding opportunities and impact the agenda for science education in the

U.S. for coming years. Most importantly, it will facilitate the engagement of often under-represented groups of

students and science teachers through your modeling, program development and excellent leadership.

Thank you for attending and bringing your expertise to this mini-symposium. You, as science education researchers,

have the experience, knowledge and vision to help pave the way to our nation’s future.

Sincerely,

g y,

Dean and Professor

Craig H. Kennedy, PhD

PROJECT GOALS

The major goals of this symposium are to:

1. Continue development of a network of Black science education faculty members to research issues

related to science learning in the United States in different school settings;

2. Provide opportunities for research teams, through conferences and electronic and virtual

communication, means to develop and conduct multi-site micro-research studies on learning

activities that effectively engage and serve the diversity of learners found in a variety of U.S.

educational settings;

3. Continue to have teams of Black science researchers and individuals who can successfully publish

scholarly writings on science learning; and

4. Increase the number of Black science education faculty members at traditionally White and

Historically Black Colleges and Universities who submit federally and privately funded research

proposals such as those submitted to the National Science Foundation.

BLACK SCHOLARS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

Dr Jennifer D Adams Assistant Professor Brooklyn College CUNY

Dr. Gillian Bayne Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Lehman College, CUNY

Ms. Geraldine Cochran Research Coordinator, Ph.D. Candidate, Florida International University

Dr. Neporcha Cone Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University

Ms. Salina Gray Ph. D. Candidate, Stanford University

Mrs. Natasha Johnson Ph.D. Candidate, University of Georgia

Ms. Tamecia R. Jones Graduate Research Assistant, Purdue University

Dr. Vanashri Nargund-Joshi Assistant Professor, New Jersey City University

Dr. Melody Russell Associate Professor, Auburn University

Dr. Ashraf Shady Assistant Professor, Queens College, CUNY

Dr. Line Augustin Saint-Hilaire Assistant Professor, Queens College, CUNY

Dr. Antwuan Stinson Assistant Professor, Alabama State University

Dr. Leon Walls Assistant Professor, University of Vermont

The Results of the African Diaspora:Developing Black Scholars in Science Education for the 21st Century in the United States,

Part II

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2013

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Check-In

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Opening Luncheon .....................................................................................................Suwanee

Welcome and History and Goals of the Project – Dr. Malcolm B. Butler

Schedule Overview – Dr. Mary M. Atwater

Introduction of Representative from the University of Georgia – Dr. Mary M. Atwater

Welcome – Dr. Craig H. Kennedy, Dean, College of Education, University of Georgia

Acknowledgement of Dr. Joseph Reed, NSF Program Director – Dr. Mary M. Atwater

Introduction of Plenary Speaker – Dr. Ashraf ShadyPlenary Speaker – Dr. Eileen Parsons, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks: Critical Race Theory and Socio-cultural Historical Approaches”

1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Break

2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Research Group Assignments

2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Transition to Research Group Work Rooms

2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Group Work

Elementary/Middle Research Group – Dr. Malcolm B. Butler..........................................r Rabun

Secondary/College Research Group – Dr. Mary M. Atwater.........................................Harding

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Refl ection and Re-connection Time

6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Dinner .........................................................................................................................Suwanee

Introduction of Plenary Speaker – Dr. Melody Russell Plenary Speaker – Dr. Joseph Wisenbaker, Piedmont College

“Statistical Analysis of Science Education Data - What Does It Mean to Quantify Data?”

7:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Break and Transition to Work Rooms




THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Working Breakfast

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Group Work



10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Morning Break

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Luncheon ...................................................................................................................Suwanee

Introduction of Plenary Speaker – Dr. Jennifer AdamsPlenary Speaker – Dr. Jane Butler Kahle, Condit Endowed Professor Emerita, Miami University (Ohio)

“Nuances of Conducting Science Education Research”





6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Dinner .........................................................................................................................Suwanee

Introduction of Plenary Speaker – Dr. Leon WallsPlenary Speaker – Dr. Angela Calabrese Barton, Michigan State University

“Guaranteeing Success in Conducting Research”



Elementary/Middle Group – Dr. Malcolm B. Butler .........................................................r Rabun

Secondary/College Group – Dr. Mary M. Atwater........................................................r Harding

FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013

8:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Working Breakfast



11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Symposium Evaluation Completion

12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Closing Luncheon ......................................................................................................Suwanee

Presentation of Group Research Projects – Work Group Participants

Remarks – Dr. Joseph Reed, NSF Program Director

Next Steps and Final Remarks – Dr. Mary M. Atwater and Dr. Malcolm B. Butler

2:00 p.m. Symposium Adjournment

Angela Calabrese Barton, Ph.D.Angela Calabrese Barton has received a number of awards during her academic career,

including the 2013 AERA Division B Outstanding Book Award, 2009 AERA Division G Award

for Research Leading to Transformations of Social Contexts, the 2005 AERA Division K

Award for Exemplary Research, the Early Career Research Award, National Association for

Research in Science Teaching, 2000; Kappa Delta Pi Research Award (Teaching and Teacher

Education), American Education Research Association, Division K, 1999; Early Career Award,

National Science Foundation, 1998-2003; National Academy of Education Spencer Fellow,

1996-1998; and the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Michigan State University, Department

of Teacher Education, College of Education, 1995. Her work appears in books and journals

including the Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, Journal of

Research in Science Teaching, Journal of Teacher Education, Curriculum Inquiry, International

Journal of Science Education, Research in Science Education, and the Journal of Curriculum

Studies among others. She is currently the co-Editor of the Journal of Research in Science

Teaching.

Dr. Barton earned her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and her Ph.D. in curriculum, teaching, and educational

policy from Michigan State University. She is currently a tenured professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan

State University.

Eileen R. Carlton Parsons, Ph.D.Eileen R. Carlton Parsons is a tenured associate professor of science education at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Her research examines the socio-cultural

factors that infl uence the science teaching and science learning of African-American students.

Specifi cally, she investigates the infl uence of race and culture by way of context on the science

experiences of African Americans in K-12 public education. Her work in K-12 education has

been funded by the American Education Research Association, the Spencer Foundation, and

the Ford Foundation. She received the Association for Science Teacher Education’s 2005

Contribution of Research to Practice Paper Award. Dr. Parsons’ research is published in top

peer-refereed journals inside and outside of science education.

r In 2011-2012, Dr. Parsons served as a science policy fellow for the American Association for

the Advancement of Science and participated in high-level, interagency initiatives for the federal

government. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) initiatives addressing

the underrepresentation of people of color in STEM undergraduate education were among them.

AAs a result of her involvement in the STEM policy initiatives, her research now includes a strand in STEM undergraduate education.

Dr. Parsons is also actively involved in the science education community and academia. She is an associate editor for the l Journal

of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), on the editorial board for Science Education, and recently served as the lead guest co-

editor for JRST’s special issue on culture. She participates in governance at UNC through her engagement in advisory bodies

kfor athletics (e.g., Advisory Board for Academic Support Program for Student Athletes), undergraduate education (e.g., Task

Force on Transforming Instruction in Large Lecture Courses), and general administration (e.g., Chancellor’s Advisory Committee).

Dr. Parsons received a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a major in science education and minors in program evaluation

and educational leadership and an M.S. in science education from Cornell University. She received a B.S. in science teaching,

with a B.A. equivalent in chemistry, from UNC. She taught algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, and physical science in the Northwith a B.A. equivalent in chemistry, from UNC. She taught algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, and physical science in the North

Carolina public schools.

Joseph M. Wisenbaker, Ph.D.Joseph M. Wisenbaker is an associate professor emeritus from the University of Georgia and

retired professor of education from Piedmont College (Ga.). He served as a faculty member

for 24 years in the UGA College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology before

retiring. He taught applied statistics and served on more than 350 doctoral committees,

primarily as an expert in quantitative methods. Along the way, he became deeply involved with

the special interest group in Educational Statistics with the American Educational Research

AAssociation and as a member of the International Association for Statistical Education.

Following a four-year hiatus as a retiree from UGA, Dr. Wisenbaker restarted his academic

career as a professor of education at Piedmont College, where he worked for three years with

a mix of students pursuing master’s, specialist, and doctoral degrees in education. Most of

his time there was spent as a research methodologist aimed at helping students identify ways

to quantify information about student outcomes and use that to help them evaluate programs

in the schools.

During his fi rst four years of post-college employment, he was an educational psychologist in the Center for Educational Research

and Evaluation at North Carolina’s Research Triangle Institute. He worked on a variety of federally funded contracts focusing on

studies of education and increased his interests in how governments, both federal and state, could pursue efforts to improve

educational outcomes for young people.

Because of his continuing interests in how data can be used to effect change, Dr. Wisenbaker is in a Coursera MOOC -

Introduction to Data Science. Among other things, he is learning about Python, SQL, R and ways those kinds of tools can be

applied to massive sets of data.

He earned his Ph.D. in educational psychology specializing in applied multivariate statistics and a B.S. in psychology, both from Michigan State University.Michigan State University

Jane Butler Kahle, Ph.D.Jane Butler Kahle, Condit Professor of Science Education, Emerita, Miami University, Oxford,

Ohio, has been a professor of biological sciences and education and associate dean of the

Graduate School at Purdue University and Director, Division of Elementary, Secondary, and

Informal Education at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has directed 45 research

projects, including Ohio’s Systemic Initiative, receiving over $55,000,000 in external funds.

She was the founder and original director of Ohio’s Evaluation and Assessment Center for

Mathematics and Science Education. Kahle received the Willystine Goodsell Award for her

research on women from the American Educational Research Association and the Distinguished

Contributions to Science Education Through Research Award from the National Association

for Research in Science Teaching. She received an honorary degree from Miami University in

1991, its Distinguished Scholar Award in 2004, and its highest award, the Benjamin Harrison

Medallion, in 2006. She was named a Friend of Education in 2006 and a Distinguished

Woman Scholar in 2012 by Purdue University.

In addition to several presidencies of national professional associations, she was chairperson of the National Research Council’s

Committee on Science Education K-12. She was a member of NSF’s Advisory Committee for the Directorate of Education and

Human Resources and chairperson of its Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. She is a Fellow in

the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the author of 148 refereed papers, 52 chapters in monographs or

books, and fi ve books. Kahle has served on the editorial review boards of more than 12 scholarly journals.

Dr. Kahle earned her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University.

Malcolm B. Butler, Ph.D.Malcolm B. Butler is an associate professor of science education in the School of Teaching,

Learning and Leadership at the University of Central Florida. His teaching and research

interests include multicultural science education, science and underserved students, pre-

service and in-service science teacher education, environmental education and physics

education. In addition to his scholarly efforts having been published in several well-known

science education journals, his teaching and research have been generously supported by

the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Physics Teacher

Education Coalition, and the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Butler is co-author of National

Geographic Learning’s elementary science curriculum program, National Geographic Science.

He also co-authored the book, Teaching Science to English Language Learners, published

by Routledge, and co-edited the upcoming book, Multicultural Science Education: Preparing

Teachers for Equity and Social Justice, to be published by Springer.

Mary M. Atwater, Ph.D.Mary M. Atwater is a science education professor in the UGA College of Education Department

rof Mathematics and Science Education, an Inaugural AERA Fellow, and AAAS Fellow. Her

research focuses on socio-cultural-political infl uences on science learning and teaching,

multicultural science education, and chemical education in higher education. Her recent

publications have appeared in such journals as Journal of Research in Science Teaching

and Theory Into Practice. The article, “From the contributions to the action approach: White

teachers’ experiences infl uencing the development of multicultural science curricula” by Suriel

and Atwater, was one of the fi ve top JRST articles recommended for science teachers in T

2012 by the Publication Committee of NARST. Her article, “Social constructivism: Infusion

into multicultural science education research,” published in the Journal of Research in Science

Teaching, was selected as one of the most infl uential science education articles in the last

30 years. It was made widely available to educators because it started a systematic research

movement in the area of multicultural science education.

She is the fi rst co-author of an edited book, Multicultural Science Education: Preparing

Teachers for Equity and Social Justice, accepted for publication by Springer to be published later this year. She is committed

to mentoring the next generation of educational researchers whose works concentrate on race, ethnicity, class, and gender in

education as demonstrated by being the principal investigator of two NSF funded projects focusing on Black scholarship. As

chair and a member of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching’s Membership and Election Committee (2007

r – 2010), she planned the program for its Graduate Student Forum. As an AERA member, she has served as a proposal reviewer

for SIG: Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender and served as the Chair of Division K’s Exemplary Research in

TTeaching and Teacher Education Committee Award (2009-2011). She is an Editorial Board Member of the l International Journal

of Environmental and Science Education, recently completed her second term on the Editorial Board of Journal of Research in

Science Teaching, and continues to serve as a manuscript reviewer of several science education journals.

Rhonda Rackley, Ed.S.Rhonda Rackley is a Ph.D. student in science education at the University of Georgia. She

earned a B.S. in biology from Oral Roberts University and an M.S. in biology from the University

of West Georgia, where she completed teacher certifi cation. She received an Ed.S. in science

education at Georgia State University. She has just completed her 18th year of teaching and

is currently teaching AP Biology and AP Environmental Science at the Gwinnett School of

Mathematics, Science, and Technology. She hopes to defend her prospectus during the fall

semester.

Her areas of interest in science education include ELLs in science classes, teacher perceptions

of ELLs, and the role of an Ethic of Caring in middle school science.

Tonjua B. Freeman, M.Ed.TTonjua B. Freeman is a Ph. D. candidate in science education at the University of Georgia.

Ms. Freeman’s passion for improving science education began when she was a high school

teacher. She noticed that not all students were able to easily grasp some complex science

topics. She is pursuing a doctoral degree to acquire strategies and tools to help improve

the science education of students at all levels. Ms. Freeman has educated, mentored,

and supervised early childhood, elementary, and secondary preservice teachers. She has

also been the lead instructor for college-level biology courses and labs. Ms. Freeman has

been appointed to aide students in completing science-related service-learning projects.

AAdditionally, she has participated in several research projects and taught science, health, and

study skills courses at the middle and high school levels.

Ms. Freeman received her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University and her master’s degree

from UGA. Her research interests include enabling teachers to effectively teach students who

are different from them, improving levels of achievement for pre-college science students

f of color, and decreasing barriers for students of color pursuing science-related careers. Her dissertation investigates ways of

increasing levels of achievement in science for Black students through learning from the experiences of effective high school

science teachers. She is co-author of a published book chapter as well as two manuscripts. Ms. Freeman has presented at

numerous professional conferences.

Ms. Freeman is dedicated to community service and performs many community service activities through her church and

r sorority. She enjoys the mentoring work she does with young girls and hopes to have opportunities in the future to also mentor

yyoung boys.

1031 Virginia Avenue, Atlanta, Ga, 30354

T: 1-404-767-9000 F: 1-404-768-0185

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance in planning the symposium:

Paula Alexander Melanie Baer Beth Massey Kim Wright

Program Copy Editor: Julie Sartor

Program Design: Troy Bassett

We wish to thank the Hilton Atlanta Airport Hotel staff for their assistance.

african diaspora symposium · ms. tamecia r. jones graduate research assistant, purdue university...

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