Reframing Organizational Contexts from Barriers to Levers for Teacher Learning in Science Education Reform

Item

Title

Reframing Organizational Contexts from Barriers to Levers for Teacher Learning in Science Education Reform

Abstract/Description

A growing body of work regarding teacher learning and implementation of reform has pointed to the significant role organizational contexts play in shaping teachers’ engagement with reform and their implementation decisions. Within science education, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and standards reflective of the Framework for K-12 Science Education by states in the US and Canada resurfaces a need to attend to teachers’ contexts in designing for the integration of these standards. To date, however, instructional contexts are generally cast as barriers to implementation and there is a scarcity of conceptual tools being utilized that support mature understandings of teachers’ learning and decision-making in context. In this paper, we review prior literature on the relationship between teachers’ organizational contexts and their learning and implementation of reform in science and other disciplines. We then present a conceptual framework rooted in organizational theory that can support nuanced understandings of teacher learning and implementation and guide the development of teacher-learning contexts. We argue that using a lens of organizational sensemaking complicates the teacher–context relationship for learning and implementation of reform and recasts teachers’ contexts and local expertise as important levers for learning. We conclude with a set of practices to guide the design of professional learning contexts that reflects this framing and that may enable deeper engagement and learning of science teachers in the context of reform.

Author/creator

Allen, Carrie D.

Heredia, Sara C.

Date

2021

In publication

Journal of Science Teacher Education

Volume

32

Issue

2

Pages

148-166

Resource type

en Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Synthesis/Overview

Keywords

professional development

reform implementation

science standards

teacher learning

Open access/full-text available

en Yes

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

1046-560X

DOI

10.1080/1046560X.2020.1794292

URL

Full-text PDF Shared by Author (ResearchGate)

Citation

Allen, C. D., & Heredia, S. C. (2021). Reframing Organizational Contexts from Barriers to Levers for Teacher Learning in Science Education Reform. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 32(2), 148–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2020.1794292

Cited in

The Institution of Schooling

Item sets

Handbook Chapter 4 Citations

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