Designing Frameworks for Authentic Equity in Science Teaching and Learning: Informal Learning Environments and Teacher Education for STEM

This article describes a collaborative research project designed to learn about teacher identity in relation to teacher learning experiences that centered informal science education places and approaches.  This article is relevant for people who do research on teacher learning, design teacher learning experiences, especially in informal science settings and evaluators of such programs.  This article will allow relevant audiences to think about the implications of teachers' social identities in relation to thier students and in relation to how they adapt and use informal science material, spatial and conceptual resources in their practices. 

In order to advance authentic equity in science education, it is salient to have frameworks that allow educators and researchers to design learning environments, activities, and research agendas that centers students’ strengths in order for them to achieve full participation in science. As such it is important to consider the social identities of science education stakeholders—teachers and students—in teacher education. However, as identity is complex, it requires research approaches that elucidate not only the nuances of teacher identity but also the complexities of science teaching and learning environments. This article describes a collaborative research project that aimed to unpack the relationship between teacher identity and learning to teach. It outlines the collaborative process of theory building that includes teacher participants and the research team and how the framework for teacher education emerged that considers the various aspects of designing equitable and liberatory science learning