Divining the professional development experiences of K-12 STEM master teacher leaders in the United States

Abstract

Despite a need for strong K-12 STEM education globally, professional development systems for STEM teachers in the United States lack coherence or sequenced experiences to recruit, develop, and retain master teachers and teacher leaders in STEM. Still, the United States produces erudite STEM master teachers and effective STEM teacher leaders, which asks the question to how, where, and when these teachers sought out opportunities to develop their teaching competencies and hone their leadership skills to become STEM master teacher leaders. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, framed by master teacher leadership development, this study examined the lived experience of 10 nationally recognised STEM teacher leaders: Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching awardees and/or alumni of the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program. Participants provided detailed accounts, identifying and scrutinising key experiences in their teaching career that led them to national recognition as an STEM master teacher leader. Five themes emerged from the interpretive phenomenological analysis: the importance of school culture and STEM community, access to professional networks/opportunities, motivation, luck, and reinforcing beliefs. These themes, aligned with international exemplars of teacher professional development pathways, suggest areas of improvement for STEM master teacher leadership within the United States.

Implementing and Facilitating STEAM Problem-Based Learning From the Perspective of Teacher Leadership

“…Hence, their decisional capital was improved. A well-implemented and carefully supported process, guided by principals, has great potential to improve teachers' professional capital in schools (Hite & Milbourne, 2022). To achieve these positive results, pitfalls such as a lack of resources, support, and time for and hands-on training in PLCs should be avoided as should vague expectations for the PLCs and collaboration, and STEAM PBL implementation.…”

I will survive: Teachers reflect on motivations to remain in education amidst a global pandemic

“…Four categories were created: (1) preservice teachers were working toward teacher licensure and had no years of experience independently in a classroom as, (2) novice teachers had 1 year of experience (Barrett et al, 2002), (3) early career teachers were those with 2–4 years of experience, and (4) master teachers had five or more years of experience (Rivkin et al, 2005). Although some researchers define “master” based on specific criteria (e.g., award recipients and in leadership positions; Hite & Milbourne, 2022), others use definitions that are less concrete (e.g., transitioning into leadership roles as they develop an expertise in content, schooling, educational policy, and educational practice; Shulman, 1987; Toh & Tsoi, 2008). Our designation of “master” is a practical one, based on years of experience because we assume that teachers who have been teaching six or more years are likely no longer on probationary status (Thomsen, 2014), have had the opportunity to mentor an early career teachery/have hosted a student teacher, and may have taken or/ considered taking leadership roles at their schools.…”