Culturally and linguistically diverse students do not leave their language patterns at the door when they enter STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) classrooms. Therefore,understanding how linguistic barriers, including systematic ideas about language, affect STEM learning and achievement, particularly for African-American youth, is important. With the support of the National Science Foundation, collaborating investigators Christine L. Mallinson, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Anne H. Charity Hudley, Ph.D., of The College of William and Mary, are investigating K-12 STEM educators' understandings of social, cultural, and linguistic standards in schools. With particular attention to the language of African-American students, the investigators are working toward a fuller understanding of how language variation and change affects K-12 STEM teachers' judgments about language differences, pedagogical practices, and student assessments. The researchers are collecting information from a group of 60 K-12 STEM educators from public and independent schools who teach African-American students in greater Baltimore, Maryland, Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, they are assessing educators' knowledge about and attitudes toward language variation, responses to language variation in their pedagogy, and understanding of the role that language variation plays in student assessment, particularly in relation to their African-American students. In addition, the researchers are working with participants who serve as educator-consultants to design linguistically informed materials for classroom use.
Information collected on language variation as well as systematic ideas about language in STEM contexts are contributing to expanding linguists' theories and models for understanding the relationships between linguistic, cultural, and social effects across a range of educational settings. Results from this research are speaking to the roles of classroom-based responses to language variation, teacher attitudes toward language variation, and the interplay between symbolic and structural effects of the language of African-American students in explaining the opportunity gaps that persist for culturally and linguistically diverse students, particularly in STEM educational contexts. Research findings speak to best practices for educating K-12 STEM educators about linguistically and culturally-based issues in the classroom. This research is providing immediate practical application to educators' pedagogy and practice in the form of educator workshops, teacher designed readings, and a website for educators that describes the project and ensures that its research outcomes are broadly disseminated.
