Traid Alliance for Gender Equitable Teaching is a project of the Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP) of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), in strong collaboration with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Through this initiative, SEP will pioneer a multi-tiered professional development program in gender equity for teachers that will change the equity climate for girls in school classrooms. These efforts will be pursued in the context of teacher-scientist partnership, a novel approach to gender equity and science education reform. Through the NSF's Experimental Program for Women and Girls, SEP and SFUSD established a network of Traid Girls' Science Clubs which provided single-sex science enrichment experiences for girls, an important strategy to increase the recruitment and retention of women in science. However, this strategy does not address the experiences of girls in science classrooms. Only permanent change in the gender equity climate of classrooms, where girls spend the majority of their science instructional time, will fully provide girls equal opportunity in science. Those with the most influence over these classrooms are K-12 teachers. By combining Triad Alliance for Gender Equitable Teaching, SEP will develop a unique approach to promoting gender equity through teacher-scientist partnership that is institutional, sustainable, and expandable.
Through the Triad Alliance for Gender Equitable Teaching, SEP will: 1) engage teacher and scientist partners iterative professional development focused on implementing equitable teaching strategies and engaging in reflective practice, 2) develop a cadre of gender equity leaders and mentors in the public schools and the university, and 3) enable teacher and scientist partners to pursue action research into the effectiveness of their gender equity efforts on girls. These goals will be accomplished through three integrated programmatic strands: 1) the Triad Introductory Program in Gender Equity, 2) the Triad Leadership & Mentorship Network, and 3) the Triad Equity Action Research Group. The goals and programmatic structures will address three target populations: middle school girls, middle school science teachers, and university scientists at the beginning of their professional careers. Goals for each of these target populations include: for girls, to increase their self-confidence and assertiveness in science and deepen their abilities in scientific problem-solving; for teachers, to increase their ability to understand and implement teaching behaviors that promote gender equity and student learning in science; and for scientists, to raise their awareness of gender equity issues and increase their leadership abilities, self-confidence, and teaching skills.
Since the outcomes of the Triad Alliance will be of national interest, documentation of the effort and its outcomes will be assembled into a "how to" dissemination package designed for use by universities and school districts across the US. The goals of the dissemination effort are to: 1) document the key components of both the Triad Girls' Science Clubs and the Triad Alliance for Gender Equitable Teaching; 2) create a comprehensive dissemination package Triad: A Guide to Promoting Gender Equity through Partnership that includes both a handbook and a video; and 3) field-test these dissemination materials in collaboration with two other sites.
A team from the Stanford University School of Education will evaluate and conduct research on the Triad Alliance for Gender Equitable Teaching and will be highly integrated into all professional development and dissemination activities.
