White Teachers of Diverse STEM Students: Learning Progressions Towards or Away From Culturally Relevant STEM Education

The United States currently reports significant under-representations of people identifying as Black and Hispanic in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and careers. As a result, research abounds on the achievement, participation, and motivation gaps that exist between diverse populations in STEM education and careers, and the important role of K-12 STEM teachers in fostering and providing equitable STEM education for all students. One additional factor into the current research on this topic is the predominantly White STEM teaching force. Combined with the documented racial and ethnic participation gaps in STEM education and careers, this naturally raises questions and concerns regarding the abilities of White STEM teachers to equitably teach and motivate diverse students. Culturally relevant STEM teaching can help bridge the racial and cultural divide between teacher and students, but often White STEM teachers struggle to utilize culturally relevant education in their classrooms.This critical comparative case study focuses on the multiple influences that secondary STEM teachers experience in relation to enacting culturally relevant STEM teaching practices. The findings of this study support the idea that being a practitioner of CRE is a continuum, not a binary. This study also finds that teachers can display proficiencies in CRE even when they did not self-report these proficiencies. Additionally, closer examination of the multiple influences on teachers’ abilities to be practitioners of CRE finds that these influences can be either inhibitors or catalysts of the ability to actualize CRE in in the STEM classroom. Examining these multiple influences results in recommendations to further the use of culturally relevant STEM education. Capitalizing on these recommendations could have the future impact of an increasingly equitable STEM teaching force better prepared to motivate all students towards STEM higher education and careers.