Building on the construct of mathematical dispositions – ideas and values about mathematics and patterns of engagement over time – this study investigated which practice-linked goals students appropriated, their explanations of these goals, and the expression of these goals in situated actions in problem solving as a way to develop a more nuanced understanding of students’ positive dispositions to mathematics. The study was conducted in a 3rd grade classroom in a school that actively supports the development of positive dispositions to mathematics over the 2013-2014 school year. Data sources included student surveys, student interviews and classroom observation. Analysis was conducted at the classroom and individual level to determine to what extent students held practice-linked goals aligned with the values of the reform-oriented mathematics education community. In addition, close analysis of case study students allowed analysis of how different goal profiles related to situated actions in problem solving. The results of the study contribute to our field’s understanding of how primary students orient themselves to mathematics and how the development of positive dispositions to mathematics can be supported in the classroom.

This qualitative study examined new science teachers' conceptualization of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). The study followed six novice science teachers from their preservice teaching placements into their first jobs as instructors of record, observing in their classrooms and interviewing them about their use of CRP. The study sought to understand (1) how the participating teachers conceptualize CRP in science, and (2) what challenges the teachers faced in trying to implement CRP. Findings suggest that the teachers conceptualized CRP in ways that were consistent with Enyedy, Danish and Fields' (2011) interpretations of relevance: relevance of authentic purpose, relevance of content and/or context, and relevance of practices. The teachers, however, translated those interpretations of relevance into their conceptualizations and classroom practice in a variety of ways. While they encountered difficulties in conceptualizing and practicing CRP, they also made productive moves in their practice and evidenced positive elements in their conceptualizations of CRP. In order to address the challenges these teachers faced in implementing CRP, I suggest an approach to teacher preparation in CRP that builds upon the understandings and productive moves the teachers evidenced in this study.

This study examines how teachers can structure and use pretend play for teaching science, as well as the impact it has on students’ agency, engagement, and discussion. Using interaction analysis, I examine two teachers in two classrooms (n=52) of first and second grade students (6-8 years) at a progressive elementary school. To shed light on how differently play can be structured and integrated into curriculum, I designed two conditions or approaches of inquiry: guided approach and open approach. I argue that while the guided approach of inquiry often worked well in learning science concepts, the open approach of inquiry sustained student agency and engagement. Findings from the open approach condition also illustrated the impact play had on learning, as well as the importance of designing opportunities for students to experience affect. By understanding the impact affect has on play and learning, this study can inform how to design early elementary science curriculum.

The ideas students have about what causes math failure are known to impact their motivation. This dissertation throws light on how attributions of failure are negotiated during math tutoring at a non-profit STEM-based after-school program. The study employs methods of interaction analysis on a small number of cases to qualitatively document how tutor-student dyads co-construct stories about failure. The project addresses the theoretical relationship between students and tutors’ enacted responses to failure and their enacted knowledge-construction practices. I argue that responses to failure involve constructing obstacles, blaming causes of obstacles, and intervening to resolve obstacles, which take place as part of public practice. How students recruit sources of knowledge (perception, reasoning, introspection, memory, and testimony) in knowledge-construction practices, and how they tell stories about breakdowns in those practices are core concerns of the dissertation. By understanding the interactional mechanics of failure, the study can inform discourse-level interventions in the future.

Working from a Critical Race Theory framework, in the article entitled “Educational Technology as Interest Convergence: Who is really served by technology in urban schools?”, I apply the theory of interest convergence (Bell, 1980) to understand the current educational technology landscape in urban schools serving majority Black and Latinx children. Educational technology policy is both morally unconscionable, practically inadequate, and undermining the democratic purpose of public schooling in the service of corporate interests to the detriment of students of color. I argue that technology, similar to the law, is built by fallible humans and cannot be understood or improved without a race conscious perspective (Benjamin, 2019; Nakamura & Chow-White, 2013), especially in urban schools. If teachers are going to attempt to use technology to further their social justice goals, then they need to be aware of the potential negative outcomes that come from relying on interest convergence to drive social transformation. This theoretical paper creates the basis upon which further work can be done to design teacher education contexts which counter the detrimental effects of policies made within the structure of interest convergence while also taking advantage of the historic moment in educational technology for the needs of students and their communities.

Article two entitled “Developing Teacher Candidate Critical Technology Identity in an Urban Teacher Residency” is an analysis of the written work of the teacher candidates involved in the residency program. To design for an educational context in which marginalized youth in urban schools are provided with the space and chance to utilize technologies to transform not only their learning, but also their communities and worlds for a more just future, we can start with understanding how teachers own experiences, identities, and ideologies mediate their learning and vision of technology use in the classroom.

To understand how teachers come to adapt their practices in the classroom which utilize technology, and any changes to that practice we might hope to encourage, we must understand the current identities teachers have already developed around technology use both in and outside of school. In the course of this paper, I focused on the educational histories, goals, and narratives of technological experience to build a framework for how teachers begin their process of learning to teach with technology. We must understand those historical narratives that make up the identities which have been both imposed upon new teachers (digital native, social media obsessed, technology reliant) and those to which they ascribe (gamer, skeptic, efficiency oriented). Those identities are deeply consequential for how they approach technology integration and support in their teacher education programs, in their field placements, and in their own classrooms in the early years of their teaching

Based on the theoretical framing of Article I and the findings of Article II, the third paper entitled “Designing for Complexity: Critical Technology Literacies in Teacher Education” describes four design principles that will be useful for other teacher education programs when designing for critical technology literacies. First, technology courses should encourage playful enactment with the goal of productive failure; meaning that our work should focus on getting teacher candidates comfortable enough with each other and their own histories with technology for them to engage with new digital tools in ‘badly structured’ (Kapur & Bielaczyc, 2012) manner with plenty of opportunities to have digital tools fail. The opportunity to have tools fail without catastrophic outcomes in front of their own students helps teachers see creative uses for digital tools rather than static steps to follow – similar to the power of productive failure for learning mathematics. Related to this is the design expectation that personal and professional technology identities mediate what teachers take up from readings and learning activities in the class. Because of the need for playful enactment and complex intersections between identity, classroom context, and digital tool availability, it is important to structure teacher learning around critical practices rather than some particular list of tools. And finally, most importantly, it is necessary to design structures in teacher learning contexts where they are expected to engage with one another in accountable talk to make connections between the digital and social justice realms.

The goal of this dissertation is to understand how students developed their voices as they made art about social issues. As sixth grade students participated in an in-school visual arts class that I designed and taught, I attended to their talk about art and art making to study both what it meant to have a voice in a classroom discussion context as well as how they developed what I term their individual artistic and political voices. For the purpose of studying different kinds of student voice as it developed in interaction over the course of an instructional experience, I used design-based research to plan for structures of participation and discourse in pedagogy and curriculum. Designed structures included whole group, small group, and partner sharing focused on personal narratives about social issues, critique, and reflections on presenting art to an audience. I aimed to understand how curriculum and pedagogy supported how students talked about art making, what it meant to have a voice in the classroom context, and students’ individual development of artistic and political voice.

Through analysis of student art, talk, and interaction, I argue that students’ levels of personal distance from their chosen social issues mediated how they talked about and expressed emotion through representational choices, that representational choices were linked to developing communicative practices around art making, and that students worked in ways that made sense to them consistent with their lived experiences. I argue that having a voice was interactionally developed during discussions and defined as collaborative, democratic, and heterogeneous. And finally, through individual focus students, I show how students’ artistic and political voices symbiotically influenced one another as they interacted with particular mediating factors to transform their chosen topics into messages and art materials into mediums. This study will extend our understanding of how students develop their voices in classroom interaction and help conceive of ways to frame and organize arts learning experiences in schools. Results are relevant to how student voice is theorized and operationalized, how the value of arts education can be linked to learning and student experience, and methodological considerations for design-based research.

Using Brinkerhoff’s success case methodology, this multi-site case study examined early models of MakerSpace implementation in K–5 schools in a single district. Specifically, this study examined the early use of MakerSpaces as well as the supports and barriers affecting teacher use of these spaces. The study also examined curricular connections and MakerSpace use as a conduit for purveying instruction in the soon-to-be-implemented Next Generation Science Standards.

The findings of this study are based on three sources of data: a survey of teachers in the district querying current usage and beliefs about MakerSpaces; in-depth interviews of seven district principals of schools with MakerSpaces; and nine observations of MakerSpace lessons in the district. The data were coded by macro themes such as barriers and affordances, as well as themes related specifically to vision and curricular content.

This study showed that MakerSpace practices in the district are not guided by one specific model and that different models of use have emerged: the dedicated teacher model, the insider capacity builder model, and the collaboration model. Additionally, the study revealed a teacher training gap in using MakerSpaces resulting in missed opportunities for grade level-connected learning. However, the study also found that teachers’ use of MakerSpaces provides hands-on experiences for students, which provide early engineering exposure. Many of these experiences are supported by a dedicated person in charge of the MakerSpace. The findings suggest a need for a well-articulated plan prior to MakerSpace implementation that includes professional development opportunities for teachers as well as specific curricular and human capital supports.