We investigated secondary science and mathematics teachers engaged in a two-and-a-half-year professional development effort focused on equity. We examined how teachers conducting research on their own instructional practices—a central learning strategy of the professional development project—informed and/or constrained their views related to three strands of equity: teachers and teaching, students and learning, and students’ families and communities. Data collected included recordings of professional development seminars and school-site meetings, three sets of individual interviews with teacher researchers, and drafts and final products of the classroom research teachers conducted. From our qualitative analyses of data, we found that most teachers addressed at least two of the three equity strands in researching their own practice. We also found that most transformed their understandings of teachers and students as a result of their teacher research process. However, teachers’ views of families and communities changed in less substantive ways. We close with recommendations for other researchers and professional developers intent on supporting science and mathematics teachers in using teacher research to work toward equity.

We investigated a 2.5-year professional development effort designed to support practicing science and mathematics teachers in understanding equity and enacting equitable practices. Our purpose was to inform the research base on effective equity professional development, toward the goal of better supporting science and mathematics teachers in transforming their views and practices. Because talk is central to learning, we examined how four strategies for professional learning facilitated or constrained teachers' shared equity talk: (1) engagement in teacher research, (2) reflection on personal experiences, (3) modeling of reform-based instructional practices, and (4) examination of school/state/national data on student course taking and achievement. We asked: How did teachers' shared equity talk vary across these strategies? To answer this question, we qualitatively analyzed recorded seminars, teacher interviews, and written reflections to determine the opportunities each strategy afforded teachers to talk about equity, and the length and substance of teachers' equity talk as a result. We found that, despite teachers' construction of a shared equity discourse and the iterative implementation of professional learning strategies, the type of strategy implemented did indeed matter. Although all four strategies provided teachers similar opportunities to discuss equity, some strategies were more effective than others in facilitating equity conversations.