Leveraging the community context of Family Math and Science Nights to develop culturally responsive teaching practices

Teaching and Teacher Education 61 (2017) 1e15

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Leveraging the community context of Family Math and Science Nights to develop culturally responsive teaching practices SueAnn I. Bottoms*, Kathryn Ciechanowski, Katrina Jones, Jenny de la Hoz, Ana Lu Fonseca Oregon State University, USA

h i g h l i g h t s
Culturally responsive teaching lens focused attention on experiences in the course.
Family Math and Science Nights emphasized focus on cultural specificity of context.
Repeated practice is required to disrupt assumptions about teaching science and math.
Reconceptualized methods course allowed for moments of introspection and awareness.
Teacher candidates worked with children/families in non-evaluative ways.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 3 March 2016 Received in revised form 10 September 2016 Accepted 16 September 2016

This paper examines how elementary teacher candidates experience Family Math and Science Nights with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families. Weekly reflections were analyzed using Gay’s (2002, 2013) Culturally Responsive Teaching framework to highlight the process of enacting and thinking in key areas: (1) Changing attitudes and beliefs, (2) Leveraging culture and difference, (3) Grappling with resistance, and (4) Improving pedagogical connections. An action-oriented focus underscores that teacher candidates need multiple rounds of practice to disrupt traditional notions of teaching and move towards cultural responsiveness. Findings suggest the importance of repeated practice, context, and focused guided reflection. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Culturally responsive teaching Out of school contexts Family Math and Science Nights Elementary science teacher preparation Disrupting assumptions

1. Introduction Learning to teach science in equitable and culturally responsive ways has been a central part of the national reform agenda in science education for the past several decades (AAAS, 1993; 1998; NRC, 1996). This reform effort continues with the Next Generation Science Standards focus on equity (NGSS Lead States, 2013;  rdova & Balcerzak, 2015). Banks as cited in Banks et al. (2007) Co characterize this as a ’demographic imperative' and a call to action in order to address systemic inequities in opportunities and educational outcomes within the educational system (p. 236). To this end, teacher preparation programs must continue to find ways for beginning teachers to develop the skills and mindset to create inclusive and equitable classrooms (Darling-Hammond &

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (S.I. Bottoms). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.09.006 0742-051X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bransford, 2007; Lee & Buxton, 2010). Gay (2002) suggests that culturally responsive teachers utilize “cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students” to engage them in learning (p. 106). In this approach, academic content and skills are “situated within the lived experiences and frames of reference of students, [so] they are more personally meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and are learned more easily and thoroughly” (p. 106). As teacher educators, we are working on how to address this diversity imperative to understand how to effectively engage teacher candidates in developing equitable practices. Recent restructuring of our science teacher preparation coursework has drawn from culturally responsive approaches to investigate how candidates learn to teach “to and through cultural diversity” (Gay, 2013, p. 48). The classrooms that elementary novice teachers enter may look nothing like their own educational experiences, and learners may have very different needs than the teacher candidates did as

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learners. This discrepancy means educators' preparation for teaching in the 21st century must include a range of diverse needs and backgrounds (Bryan & Atwater, 2002; King, Shumow, & Leitz, 2001; Lee, Hart, Cuevas, & Enders, 2004). Teacher candidates may feel apprehensive about working with culturally and linguistically diverse populations (Song, 2006). It is crucial, therefore, that these novices receive adequate and relevant experience in preparation for their teaching careers. To better serve the children and families in school communities, elementary teacher candidates can learn to understand and value their students' sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds (Lee, 2012). To support this effort, situating the teaching of science in informal settings with diverse children and their families has been shown to be an effective tool in teacher education (Ciechanowski, Bottoms, Fonseca, St. Clair, & de la Hoz, 2015; Gaitan, 2006; Harlow, 2012; Sullivan & Hatton, 2011). Many teacher education programs have created experiences for candidates to work in diverse settings through the context of multicultural education classes (Amatea, Cholewa, & Mixon, 2012). In these cases teacher candidates are examining work with diverse populations of children using the framework of their multicultural class. Researchers have suggested that this separation of the experience from their other methods classes allows the novice teachers to only examine the issues of working with diverse families in the context of the particular class (Brayko, 2013; McDonald, Tyson, Brayko, Bowman, Delport, & Shinomura, 2011). Southerland and Gess-Newsome (1999) and others make the argument that method courses need to place teacher candidates in contexts that create familiarity with science content and diverse populations. These experiences allow these beginning teachers to construct meaning around what it means to teach culturally and linguistically diverse children, families, and communities they serve and to more effectively teach science that is inclusive of all learners. Field experiences that integrate teaching science while working with diverse populations provide candidates with the opportunity to examine the concept of culturally responsive teaching outside of the context of school. These experiences may challenge their ideas of science, teaching and learning (Barton, 2000). This work is part of a larger research project, Families Involved in Education Sociocultural Teaching and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (FIESTAS) (Ciechanowski, et al., 2015; Bottoms, Ciechanowski, & Hartman, 2015). In FIESTAS, teacher candidates work with children and families from culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse populations at Spanish/English Dual Language schools. FIESTAS uses a communitybased research approach and involves outreach through partnerships with College of Education, Boys and Girls Club, 4-H Youth Development, Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience (SMILE) program, K-12 school, community organizations and businesses (Ciechanowski, et al., 2015). Our research is situated at the intersection of science teacher preparation, culturally responsive teaching, and out-of-school learning. Candidates worked with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families during Family Math and Science Nights (FMSN), which was embedded in a science methods course where they explicitly addressed what it means to learn to teach science with these learners. This approach requires the teacher candidates to critically examine their assumptions, biases, and privileges. It also requires instructors to be fully engaged by analyzing and sharing their own perspectives and privileges. We argue that the context of Family Math and Science Nights is a way for teacher candidates to use “localism and contextual specificity” (Gay, 2013, p. 63) to begin to understand and process what it means to engage in culturally responsive teaching. We focus on candidates' reflections before, during and after their participation in FMSNs, guided by two research question: (1) How does this course leverage the community context of FMSN to

support the actions of becoming a culturally responsive teacher? (2) How do elementary teacher candidates reflect about developing culturally responsive practices through the specific context of Family Math and Science Nights? 1.1. Family Math and Science Nights as a context Family Math and Science Nights have been part of other science methods courses (Harlow, 2012; McDonald, 1997) with the intent to engage teacher candidates with children and families in informal settings. Informal science events can help broaden the concept of what constitutes science learning and how children, families and candidates might interact with each other (Harlow, 2012). The informal environment changes the expectations for engagement for children at the events and for the candidates (Fenichel & Schweingruber, 2010). Sullivan and Hatton (2011) describe Family Math and Science Nights as a way to support inquiry and math and science literacy and another venue to engage families in schools. Harlow (2012) incorporated Family Science Nights into her methods course and reported a change in perceptions about teaching science as well as an increased sense about teacher candidates' ability to teach science. In a similar study, McDonald (1997) found that these events provided an opportunity for teacher candidates to engage with families and develop a better understanding of the community in which the children and families lived. 2. Theoretical and empirical perspective We draw upon culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2013) as a framework for situating science teacher preparation in the context of Family Math and Science Nights. The following sections discuss a rationale for this framework and its intersections with scholarship on beginning teacher development of critical consciousness, learning contexts, emotions and resistance, teacher reflection, and family engagement. 2.1. Culturally responsive teaching The FIESTAS Project draws from broad notions of cultural responsiveness that include attention to constructing anti-deficit perspectives, developing critical perspectives, expanding notions of the learner to include family and community, and harnessing the benefits of out-of-school contexts for learning. Gay (2002, 2013) scholarship on culturally responsive teaching provides a broad framework that integrates multiple dimensions of transforming teaching towards equity and inclusiveness. In the last decade, Gay (2013) has written about new conceptualizations of culturally responsive teaching that move beyond extensive portrayals of particular ethnic and racial groups and their experiences to recognize the diversity within these groups and to discuss how educators might teach “through” their experiences in engaging ways (p. 49e50). She argues that teaching children from diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural groups should connect in- and out-of school lives for rich learning opportunities. This type of teaching should focus on equitable learning opportunities and maintain high expectations, meaning that learners have multiple access points, varied approaches to encourage learning, and move successfully towards desired outcomes. The educator should orient children towards one another in work that fosters collaboration and community building. Furthermore, culturally responsive teaching makes advocacy a central tenet and develops children's sense of empowerment and efficacy. Her conceptualization of culturally responsive teaching includes four central ideas, included in the sections below: challenging attitudes and beliefs, grappling with resistance, leveraging culture and difference, and improvising

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pedagogical connections. 2.2. Challenging attitudes and beliefs At the heart of our teaching model is multicultural critical consciousness, which challenges us to see that what can be regarded as “everyday” or commonplace is culturally shaped (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). This increased awareness encourages educators to look beyond the lesson plan and to focus on seeing the whole child, including their sociocultural and linguistic background. This requires teachers to develop critical perspectives, instructors to model awareness of their ideologies and sociocultural positioning, and explicit opportunities for teacher candidates to develop critical thinking and weave their developing realizations into their practice (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). In teacher education, this perspective requires candidates to analyze their own beliefs and actions that have been normalized as part of their everyday experiences, and to interrupt these views with more extensive understandings of different cultures, norms, ways of being, and lived experiences that are outside the familiar. By coming to know firsthand the sociocultural contexts of children's lives, teachers may broaden their understanding of the “whole” child and extend the “thin” and “single-stranded” teacherstudent relationship that is typical in traditional schooling (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 134). Moll et al. (1992) suggest the importance of connecting schools and homes for a more expansive view of education in which families can contribute broad and diverse knowledge to their children's learning. Moje et al. (2004) describe how culturally diverse learners related their everyday lives, home culture, and peer relationships to school subjects like science. Although not fully integrated into instruction, the youth in their study drew upon knowledge like frying tortillas, travel to Mexico, and Sponge Bob in their study of science, which allowed them to make personal connections and gain multidimensional understandings of concepts. Children come to school with intellectual and practical resources that could be viewed as assets to engage them and make science authentic to their lives. This knowledge about children and families is best learned firsthand by teacher candidates through interpersonal interactions with learners rather than only through secondhand texts about children's and families' diversity and culture. Flores, Tefft-Cousin, and Diaz (1991) describe deficit views as persistent and harmful beliefs about students with cultural and linguistic differences that they are deficient and therefore are at risk of being unsuccessful in school. A traditional view highlights what students lack in learning science, but the authors suggest alternate approaches that call for us to set aside a deficit focus and instead emphasize their strengths as resources useful in learning. As we prepare teacher candidates through a culturally responsive lens, we must transform deficit views and employ asset-based perspectives in our teaching, bringing to light teacher candidates' resources, everyday science experiences, and personal experiences. 2.3. Grappling with resistance Gay (2013) describes how novices grapple with resistance to being critically reflective through their dialogues with others and the debriefing sessions in class, guided by the instructor. Teacher candidates often demonstrate resistance to culturally relevant teaching by being skeptical of its value and by expressing hesitance and anxiety over putting it into practice. Sometimes candidates claim that it is discriminatory to notice or highlight differences, or they fall back on ignorance about how to challenge inequity or transform attitudes. Resistance can also appear as fragility or unwillingness to unsettle the status quo and as superficiality or overly

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romantic views of cultural traditions or customs. What is essential to developing culturally responsive teachers is having an instructor who assists teacher candidates in describing their emotions and reflecting on ways to move forward. Teacher candidates learn ways to identify their resistance and analyze how emotions can be harnessed to propel them towards new understandings. The following two sections describe the emotional work and scaffolded reflections in more detail. 2.3.1. Emotions of disruption Hinchey (2004) suggests that individuals need to raise consciousness about their assumptions because they can significantly impact a person's actions and the consequences. She writes, “assumptions about schools, students, teaching and learning all influence teachers' actionsdand teachers' actions have enormous consequences not only for the students whose future they shape, but also for the American society …” (p. 4). Without teachers explicitly analyzing why they take particular stances, they may simply go through the motions, basing their decisions on their schooling experiences and traditional images of what a teacher does. The thought of doing something different may invoke fear or uncertainty, especially for teacher candidates. “As they approach the terrifying prospect of being alone in a classroom with thirty unpredictable young people, education students themselves generally demand recipes for what to do and scorn abstractions offered for thoughtful reflection” (p. 6). A thoughtful and critical stance, though, asks teachers to broaden experiences and their way of thinking that requires a questioning approach that challenges everyday status quo and inequities. “Incorporating such changes is a difficult process, however, because it threatens many, teachers and students alike, who are privileged by the status quo” (p. 15). Raising this awareness and developing socio-emotional tools to challenge power dynamics in schools is key to socially transformative work, yet it requires getting out of one's comfort zone and into uncharted territory. Operating beyond a level of comfort can be scary, uncomfortable, hard, exciting, and intimidating. It can bring to the surface a host of emotions as the novice teacher moves beyond complacency towards a lifelong process of developing consciousness. 2.3.2. Reflection as a tool for negotiating change The increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of K-12 students paired with relatively little change in the demographics of teachers entering the profession, according to Gay and Kirkland (2003), requires focused and purposeful attention to expanding cultural and critical awareness and self-reflection. In order to provide equitable education for all students, teachers need to examine and reflect upon their own values, beliefs, and assumptions about teaching and working with children and families from diverse backgrounds (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Kyles & Olafson, 2008). Gay and Kirkland (2003) describe general and specific obstacles that get in the way of candidates attending to issues of race and ethnicity in their courses. General obstacles are the lack of understanding of what reflection is and is not and lack of opportunities for guided self-reflection. Specific challenges include the need to develop skills and practice talking about race, ethnicity, and diversity, avoidance and/or unwillingness to participate in these discussions, redirection to make it less important, their own unexamined assumptions and biases associated with liberal guilt, and beliefs that racism is a non-issue and advocating color-blindness. Yerrick and Hoving (2003) ask us to consider what experiences we might provide for teacher candidates that will unstabilize their assumptions about teaching science and teaching science in culturally diverse contexts. In their study, they asserted that teacher candidate's reflections fell into two main categories, those that were able to use the experience to

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rethink their assumptions and those that applied their experiences to the new context. Gay and Kirkland (2003) suggest that teacher education programs need to develop supportive environments that have normative expectations for self-reflection and attention to critical perspectives. They suggest that this reflective practice should happen at the individual level as well as becoming a part of the class discourse and be an ongoing and iterative process. Danielowich (2012) reminds us that reflection is more than describing and summarizing. It is about examining assumptions, biases, and pushing oneself to analyze the impact of these unexamined assumptions on one's teaching practice. Additionally reflection has to occur in a guided and structured process, be ongoing, and have an apparent connection to the ideas and interactions taking place in the course (Danielowich, 2012; Nelson, 2008). In this study, the science methods course utilized the type of novice teacher reflection described above, which was required as part of the process of preparing and participating in Family Math and Science Nights in local schools. In the university-school partnership context, supported conversations with teacher candidates about traditional and re-envisioned roles for parents are only possible through opening new pathways for parental engagement in the events. Pohan and Adams (2007) report that “structured and frequent opportunities to work closely with diverse individuals at schools can help preservice teachers identify and analyze their biases or misconceptions and ultimately develop a better understanding of the students and families …” (p. 49). Through structured reflective conversations, teacher candidates can come to understand that culture is a strength for children's learning through direct first-hand interactions with families in addition to open-ended processes for children to draw on their cultural resources and for teachers to take up these resources in instruction (Moll, 2015). Teachers can access and use cultural resources through multiple pathways involving both parents and children. Likewise, bilingualism comes to be viewed as a beneficial and dynamic tool for comprehending and communicating about phenomena. Teacher candidates come to view their agency in bilingual contexts to make use of a range of languages and linguistic varieties as assets for learning (Palmer & Martínez, 2013). Family Math and Science Nights provide the context for the teacher candidates to gain deeper understandings of bilingualism because they see firsthand the interactional dynamic of bilingual communication and its power for families' and children's meaning making. These firsthand experiences coupled with scaffolded reflection hold promise for shifting teacher candidates' ideologies about culture and language in schools. Amatea et al. (2012) studied teacher candidates' participation in a multicultural education course designed to challenge their ideas about minority families. They found that after the course, teacher candidates had less stereotypic attitudes and felt more confident in using family-centric models of engagement. They also expressed better understandings of the complexities underlying students' behavior and were less likely to blame families. Furthermore, by requiring teacher candidates to include families in their developing notions of science instruction, they come to value the involvement of families and build beliefs about the importance of inclusive education. These events serve to increase parent engagement and build community and to strengthen the home and school connection. FMSNs provide a platform for candidates and families to learn science together in more equitable ways. Gaitan (2006) discusses how these types of learning spaces promote equity. Through these experiences, teacher candidates may develop a greater appreciation for the intellectual resources that families and communities bring to benefit students. Equitable practices can be built by

bridging school content with the cultural resources of children's lived experiences. Efforts to reconceptualize parental engagement have critiqued traditional structures for parents in schools such as field trip chaperones, parent-teacher conferences, and family nights targeted at content areas such as math, science, or literacy (Barton, Drake, Perez, St. Louis, & George, 2004; Civil, Andrade, & Anhalt, 2000; Delgado-Gaitan, 1996). “These kinds of actions position parents as receivers of school structures rather than framers, and show only how parents fit into an already preconceived structure” (Barton, Drake, Perez, Louis, & George, 2004, p. 8). What is key to reshaping parental engagement in schools is facilitating the ways in which parents “author a place of their own in schools” and “position themselves differently” to interact with schools in more relationship-building and empowering ways (p. 8). Successful parent-school relations often include opportunities for parents to have a voice and expectations for teachers to listen carefully to build on reciprocal interactions for learning together. Parental presence in schools should not be overlooked as a rich opportunity to open spaces for multiple voices and reciprocity. Likewise, parental attendance at Family Math and Science Nights could provide a place for teacher candidates to work on harnessing and listening to parents' voices and exploring ways to develop relationships that are reciprocal and mutually informative. In this context, teacher candidates can reconsider the traditional roles for parents as “receiver” or “helper” (p. 9) and extend their understandings of inclusive and equitable education.

2.4. Improvising pedagogical connections It is necessary to introduce teacher candidates to a variety of innovative and flexible teaching strategies, but we should not “assume that blind replication of instructional programs or teacher mastery of particular teaching methods, in and of themselves, will guarantee successful student learning, especially when we are discussing populations that historically have been mistreated and , 2003, p. 408). Teacher miseducated by the schools” (Bartolome education requires a shift from “one size fits all” methods or lesson plans to the sociocultural contexts of teaching and learning to include analysis of sociocultural realities of schools, families, and communities. Transforming teacher preparation programs through , 2003) and participatory (Moll et al., 1992) humanizing (Bartolome approaches may help prepare future teachers to be critical thinkers and caring collaborative partners to serve all children in schools and increase their academic achievement. Sawyer (2004) argues that the traditional one size fits all model of teaching focuses too much on skills and not enough on the “interactional and responsive creativity of teachers to a unique group of students” (p. 13). Rather than a script the teacher adopts, an improvisational approach responds to what emerges from the participation of teacher and student in the classroom. This is not to suggest a laissez faire approach to teaching, quite the contrary; it requires teachers to develop a repertoire of structures and practices and to gain expertise with and learn to use in a flexible and interactive way based on what is happening in the classroom. Sawyer (2004) as well as others posits that this approach shifts the focus from the teacher to the classroom and to participation. This shift to a focus on participation aligns with the expectation of the Next Generation Science Standards practices (NGSS Lead States, 2013). A focus on participation and interaction is emphasized in a sociocultural approach to learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Lemke, 2001) and positions teachers to aim for deeper understanding of interactions and learning within the classroom.

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3. Research study and methodology Through a partnership with SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience Program), teacher candidates who enrolled in a required elementary science methods course participated in two Family Math and Science Nights. The SMILE program is a university outreach program that serves rural Latino, Native American, and low-socioeconomic students who are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). SMILE facilitates FMSNs in a variety of community settings. SMILE provided the structure, support, and materials for the FMSN events at dual immersion schools (English/Spanish) with high poverty rates (defined by free and reduced school lunch recipients). Both schools have slightly fewer than 400 students, offer schoolwide bilingual programs in Spanish/English, and have a higher percentage of culturally and linguistically diverse students than the other local elementary programs. A Spanish-speaking college student also was partnered with each teaching team. We also had a native Arabic speaker who made signs for the events and was at the events to provide translation. The teaching teams were provided with planning ideas, science concepts, and ideas for engaging families. 3.1. Participants The teacher candidates were enrolled in an elementary science methods course required for licensure either in the fall term (n ¼ 25) or spring term (n ¼ 29), typically as juniors or seniors. Thus, this study includes two cohorts of participants (total ¼ 53; one student repeated the course to make up an incomplete from the previous term). In the fall, there were 88% white students and two Latino/as and one Pacific Islander (12% ethnic minorities). 92% were female. In the spring, there were 86% white students and 2 Latino/as and two Asian-American students (14% ethnic minority). 90% were female. Students were predominantly middle class and from small towns in the Pacific Northwest. 3.2. Research design This descriptive study took place in an elementary science methods course at a large public university in the Pacific Northwest. Family Math and Science Nights provided the context for teacher candidates to work with culturally and linguistically diverse children and families and to challenge traditional notions of teaching science. Table 1 provides an overview of the potential opportunities of FMSNs as a context for this study. In this study Family Night events took place in partner schools in a multi-purpose room and a gymnasium to accommodate the 100e150 attendees also allowing teacher candidates to set up the activity in different locations around the room. Setting up the stations on cafeteria tables allowed for participants to approach from different directions and for a number of children and families to gather around the tables. The events ran from 5:30e7:00 and included dinner. At these events families greeted each other, adults had conversations with one another and with faculty and staff as well as their children. Children and families moved freely from one activity to another in no particular order, children searched for parents to come to a certain station, or parents encouraged children to come and visit a station. Teacher candidates, faculty, and interpreters moved throughout the room talking to children and family members about the activities and answering questions about science, school, or other topics of interest. Some children visited all the stations, some only a couple or kept returning to a favorite; some stayed at the same station the entire evening.

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3.2.1. Course design Faculty from the SMILE program provided a 3-h session to prepare the teacher candidates to host two Family Math and Science Nights. Prior to this, students had read two articles, one by Sullivan and Hatton (2011) describing the planning and hosting of a similar event and one by Harlow (2012) describing the benefits of such events for teacher candidates. During the session, SMILE faculty provided an overview of the format and process for the Family Math and Science Nights. In teams of three or four, the teacher candidates were given an activity (provided by SMILE) that they would facilitate at the event. The activities included a marble roll engineering challenge, a catapult challenge, a sink or float station, an airplane design station, an adaptation/camouflage station, a color wheel station, and a measurement and proportions station. A planning sheet was used to assist in their preparation (i.e. connection to standards, science content, the big idea and key concepts, ideas for engaging children and their families). SMILE faculty as well as the instructor of the course supported teacher candidates in developing their plans. All plans were reviewed and approved by the instructor. Teacher candidates also had the opportunity to revise their activity after the first event and reflect upon this experience (week 6) before facilitating the second session. They also reflected upon their experience of the second session (week 7) before the whole class debriefing of both Family Math and Science Nights. After the two events, there was a full class session (3-h) debrief of both Family Math and Science Nights. The debriefing consisted of two parts: 1) Watching a 20-min slide show that was a collage of sound and images from the two events created by the instructor and 2) A guided discussion in small groups and whole group on the two assigned articles by Howes (2002) and Flores et al. (1991). The first part of the debriefing was a completely silent process, during which teacher candidates wrote whatever came to mind on large sheets of paper placed on the table of each group of 4e5 teacher candidates as they watched the video. After the 20 min, the groups talked about what they had collectively written and identified what they thought best captured the feeling and thoughts of the group. Each group then shared their reflections with the whole class; others were invited to add to their reflections based on what they heard from other groups. This whole group sharing was followed by another small group discussion to give them time to incorporate any additional thoughts. They were asked to individually do a free write for 10 min. In the second part of the debriefing process, the small groups were guided in their discussion of the readings (refer to Table 2), specifically looking at how the articles discuss teacher candidates and culturally and linguistically diverse children. Each group then reported to the larger group about how these articles helped or didn't help them think about and process their experiences in the two events. A 10-min free write also followed this larger group discussion. Table 3 provides an overview of instruction, materials, and structures that supported their participation in the two events and the debriefing process. 3.3. Data analysis methods This is a qualitative study that draws data from candidates' reflections at multiple points during the term. These data were coded as described below. 3.3.1. Data sources Weekly reflections were the source of data for this study. The reflections were from pre and post-events. Reflections were collected after the planning session (week 5), after each event (weeks 6 and 7), and after the debriefing session (week 8) for a total of four reflections per preservice teacher. The prompts for the

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Table 1 Affordances of FMSN context. a Themes in culturally responsive teaching

Characteristics of FMSN

Changing Attitudes and
Positions families as assets and Beliefs collaborators
Breaks down barriers between school and families
Reinforces the importance of family Leveraging Culture and
Multilingual Setting including Spanish, Difference English, Arabic and other languages
Demonstrates complexity of bilingualism
Dialogue with families requires navigating across languages Grappling with
Raising consciousness of biases and Resistance assumptions
Dealing with emotions of resistance
Purposeful attention and critical reflection

Improving Pedagogical
Connections




a

Reflections Indicating cultural responsiveness “How important it is to avoid generalizations and assumptions to effectively teach for all …. Helps teachers to break these assumptions which permeate our schools and may help break any boundaries the exist between students, families, and schools.”

“The Family Math and Science Nights can help address many school-community issues. Families with all sorts of socioeconomic statuses, languages, culture, etc. all attend the same event for the sake of learning, a sense of community collaboration and acceptance is fostered.”

“I thought that the group reflection was a really good way to reflect on how the science nights went and how we can apply what we learned from these nights to our own classrooms. I think the articles especially helped me reflect on my own practices as a teacher and to really think about making the right assumptions instead of going off of myths. We learned the importance of making assumptions that favor the parents and students and that their actions are meant to be good and helpful in the student's education.” “I think that hosting FMSN and other events that engage both the community and school is a great Set within an informal context Focuses on inclusive learning idea and deeply needed. It is important for parents and schools to build a strong relationship because it helps bridge the gap between both worlds (home and school).” environment Avoids over-emphasis on lesson plans and mechanistic views Focuses on hands-on and minds-on activities Brings together various intellectual resources from families Uses flexible structures to include diverse participants

Based on Gay (2013).

reflections were the same each week: 1) What did you learn about teaching science and/or learning science from class this week? (Reflect on the class readings, activities, and discussions that helped shape your thinking.); and 2) How will this inform your practice as a future teacher of elementary science for all learners? (Be explicit and purposeful in your reflection.). Every week, they had readings from the textbook, journal articles, and websites. The reflections were intended to serve as evidence for claims they would make about teaching science for all learners. Table 4 describes the scoring rubric used to assess these reflections that were the data for this study. The reflection rubric provided the candidates with a description of the expectations for this assignment. Reflections were read and graded by the instructor each week using the rubric (Table 4). Teacher candidates received detailed feedback each week to guide and encourage deeper thinking and critical consciousness of these ideas to their future practice. 3.3.2. Coding and analysis We initially coded preservice teacher reflections using a combination of inductive and deductive coding to develop a descriptive coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994) scheme based on Howes (2002) categories. The categories included: (1) propensity for inquiry, (2) attention to children and (3) awareness of school/society relationships. Propensity for inquiry included modeling inquiry, focusing on scientific processes, showing interest in natural phenomena, and critiquing school science experiences. Attention to children involved attending to student lives, including families and communities and comparing cultural understandings of the natural world. Awareness of society focused on viewing schools as systems and political entities, critiquing own school experiences, and promoting inclusion

of students of color. Within each of these categories, we coded statements that we characterized as deficit (e.g., portrayed children or families negatively) or anti-deficit (e.g., commented on the assets of children or families) (Howes, 2002) views but found that these categories were too dichotomous and static to represent the data. Subsequently we followed this with a second round of coding (Table 5) and categorized statements as commonplace or disruptive still noticing that these were not stable and illustrated the tenuous nature of the candidates' newer ideas. After the second round of coding we drew upon the work of Gay (2002, 2013) and developed a priori codes based on her characterizations of culturally responsive teaching. Gay's framework (2013) then became a lens to focus our attention and guided our search for confirming and disconfirming evidence of these characteristics in the teacher candidates' reflections. Gay's attributes describe attitudes, beliefs, ideologies, and concepts that are the focus in transforming teaching in culturally responsive ways. We built on these ideas and reoriented towards practice to analyze how the ideas were experienced in action. Our themes were chosen to highlight the enacting and thinking around these ideas and to capture the complexity of working through these beliefs and perspectives. Our process-oriented themes are: grappling with resistance, challenging attitudes and beliefs, leveraging culture and difference and improvising pedagogical connections. The themes evident in our data are described as follows: C Challenging attitudes and beliefs: transforming deficit views of children and families: problematizing assumptions, biases, and privilege. C Grappling with resistance: developing critical thinking through dialogues with peers, debriefing in class, and being challenged to rethink the status quo

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Table 2 Course assignments, materials and structures. Course structure

Key Course Readings/ Video

Related Course Assignments

Course met once a week for 3 h over 10 weeks plus hosted FMSNs at two local bilingual-immersion schools PSTs worked in the same 3e4 person teams for the ten-week term Debriefed as a class after both FMSNs Annenberg Foundation. (2011). Case Studies in Science Education. Retrieved 11 20, 2011, from Annenberg Learner: http://www.learner.org/ resources/series21.html?pop¼yes&pid¼47#. Case#4 Cox-Petersen, A., Melber, L.M., and Patchen, T. (2012). Teaching Science to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary Students. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Flores, B., Tefft-Cousin, P., & Estaban, D. (1991). Transforming deficit myths about learning, language, and culture. Language Arts, 68, 369e379. Harlow, D. (2012). The excitement and wonder of teaching science: What pre-service teachers learn from facilitating family science night centers. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 23(2), 199e220. Howes, E. V. (2002). Learning to teach science for all in the elementary grades: What do preservice teachers bring? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 845e869. Sullivan, J. & Hatton, M. (2011). Math and science night: A twist on the traditional event to engage families in exploring and learning through inquiry. Science and Children, 48(5) 58e63. Weekly reflections Collaboratively planning and facilitating science activities at two FMSN events Course Readings and Videos Reflective essay, “What does it mean to teach science for all?”

C Leveraging culture and difference: reflections that discuss families and children through a lens of equity, value, or intellectual resources. C Improvising pedagogical connections: inquiry strategies, teacher as guide/scaffolding, flexibility and adapting, and using questions as assessment. In this third round of coding, we refined the coding and looked more closely at the nuances of the four major themes. To support the coding process, we wrote theoretical memos that were reviewed and discussed weekly. These memos allowed other researchers to compare their findings. These memos also served to link background literature with the data analysis. The shifting assumptions, emotional responses, and reexamination of their role as teacher by teacher candidates connected to various aspects of the course or their lives. The written connections reflected different levels of awareness of sociocultural and critical issues; at times they briefly summarized key ideas but at other times they interpreted specific actions as biased, or they applied concepts to their life narratives. Their connections ranged from lower level thinking processes such as defining, describing, or summarizing to higher levels such as applying, interpreting, or

critiquing. They connected to a variety of sources such as general course topics, readings, prior coursework, life narratives, and named incidents of bias (See Tables 6e9 in Findings). The prompts were open ended to allow teacher candidates to reflect and demonstrate disruption in a variety of ways. Data could not be represented in dichotomous ways as deficit/ anti-deficit or uncritical/critical because their thinking was dynamic and continuously evolving in iterative or cyclical ways rather than continuous along a straight trajectory, sometimes demonstrating significant disruption in one instance but not in another. Likewise, disruptions could be small (i.e., slight changes in thinking) or profound (i.e., remarkable transformation of thought) and they could be sparse or frequent. Because the instructor interrogated their beliefs after every reflection, candidates were expected to demonstrate shifts in thinking in each subsequent iteration. Some candidates showed disruption at lower levels of critical awareness, whereas other candidates over the course of the term become more sophisticated in their thinking. Teacher candidates demonstrated disruption in different ways and connected to topics such as bias, privilege, teacher/student roles, or diversity in ways that made sense for them, and that developed consciousness. Individual cases (using pseudonyms) were drawn from teacher

Table 3 Instructional design (methods). Gay's “CRT major action”

Part of course

Restructuring attitudes and Reflection and teacher dialogue beliefs Centering Culture and Difference Readings about anti-deficit, cultural and linguistic differences Resisting Resistance Peer/collaborative work (to ease anxieties) Establishing Pedagogical Connections *

Localism and contextual specificity through FMSN

Description Weekly reflections, Whole group debriefing and dialogue Focused readings (see Table 2) Candidates work in small groups to collaboratively plan and facilitate science activities Work with SMILE to facilitate to FMSN in culturally and linguistically diverse schools

Based on Gay (2013).

Table 4 Reflection rubric. Weekly reflection rubric 3 Exemplary: Extremely thorough, thoughtful, and insightful. Demonstrates an ability to analyze and integrate ideas from the reading, experiences, and discussions. Connects the readings to personal beliefs about teaching science. 2 Adequate: Mostly complete, and fairly thoughtful. Demonstrates an emerging ability to integrate ideas from the reading, experiences, and discussions, although may be lacking depth of analysis. Some evidence of connecting ideas from the readings to personal beliefs about science teaching. 1 Inadequate: Descriptive, although lacking meaningful analysis. Merely reiterates what others have said. Does not integrate ideas from a variety of sources (the reading, personal experiences, and discussions). Does not connect the readings to personal beliefs about teaching science.

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Table 5 Initial coding scheme. Theme

Commonplace

Disrupted

Teacher as co-constructor of knowledge Characterized as mechanist, teacher-driven, and one size fits all Example: The more you know about the subject the more you can teach and Example: Teachers need to be open-minded and evaluate themselves as they teach. Teachers learn along with students and if teachers aren't learning, then they be able to help explain. (ZT spring 2012) might be missing something in their teaching. (MZ fall 2011) Teacher as guide and participant in the learning process Relation to Teacher is the knower, authority children Example:As a teacher, it is pretty relaxed; we know what is going to happen, Example: During FMSN we observed children learning through social interaction. They collaborated, explored and explained with other students and with their we have the power. (VO spring 2012) parents. We also saw students using the scientific process in an informal way. This was fun to see, and it was easy to guide them towards more scientific methods easily. (ND spring 2012) Relation to Parents with expertise, who value their children's learning Teacher informs and corrects parents children Example: Our goal is to interest the parents in working with and helping their Example: In my experience with similar events, it is always better to allow the and families students so that math and science interests will continue at home as well. (OS students and their family members to explore phenomenon with their parents … fall 2011) (YL fall 2011) We also needed to make families and students WANT to learn. (RD spring 2012) Relation to teaching

candidate's reflections to support the main themes. Pre-Family Math and Science Nights reflections addressed material from reading assignments and the SMILE lessons about science activities, beliefs and views about working with diverse children and families. The post-Family Math and Science Nights reflections, on the other hand, emphasized teacher candidates' experiences working with diverse children and their families and their perceptions of these events as a venue for this work. The findings described below demonstrate both pre- and post-reflections as they relate to each theme. 4. Findings In this section, we discuss findings based on four themes that are drawn from Gay (2013) attributes of becoming a culturally responsive teacher. Each theme is action-oriented and describes the thinking and enacting by teacher candidates in the process of taking up culturally responsive teaching. For each theme, we made assertions about the findings supported by quotes from candidate's reflections. Synthesized findings are at the end of each sub-section. The data in Tables 6e9 illustrates how candidates were drawing upon prior course-work, class readings, and personal experiences to make sense of what they were noticing about their own ideas and interpretations over the term. Although the Family Nights were a focus, the course offered multiple access points (e.g. restating the topic, connecting to course readings, connecting to prior course work, personal anecdotes, and consciousness of specific bias) for the candidates to understand the context and content of the course. Teacher candidates vacillated between holding on to their already formed ideas and preconceptions and the ideas and concepts we are asking them to consider. The course readings, activities and reflections provided them multiple opportunities to try on ideas, revise ideas, in an ongoing and iterative process. 4.1. Challenging attitudes and beliefs 4.1.1. Introduction In this theme candidates were initially concerned with what they initially describe as language and cultural “barriers.” The family event gave them an opportunity to see that the barrier was not as much of an issue as anticipated. One candidate discussed the importance of these events as a way to see firsthand how children show language proficiency within this context. Another commented on how readings and videos helped her think about the concept of language learners and what it means for her practice as

teachers. Still others drew upon personal experiences, for example talking about her son's experience in schools where she perceived a lack of appreciation for diverse learners. Reflections also suggest that the event followed by discussion was a means of unearthing new understandings about their own assumptions and potential biases. Post-reflections by candidates indicated a shift in thinking about children and families from a deficit to more of an asset perspective. Many shared personal prejudices or biases that they had become aware of after participating in the Family Math and Science Nights events as well as through the readings, discussion and debriefing that took place in class. They also showed an awareness of the value of understanding children not just as individuals but also as members of families and communities. The following two excerpts are about children's cultures and their potential as assets. Candidates reflected on their biases against differences that uncritically had led them to unfair assumptions about children. Activities like these make me realize how much I can underestimate children's intelligence. I forget how smart they are and how easily they can soak up new information. (EP fall 2011) I can see how students' differences can be advantageous to the classroom through culturally relevant science. (CD spring 2012) The first exemplar above indicates a shift to thinking about the child and learning instead of an exclusive focus on the teacher and her plans. While the child is positioned in a somewhat passive role who “soaks” up knowledge, the candidate describes an asset-based view in which children are smart and eager learners. This exemplar depicts an early level of disruption, but the second exemplar demonstrates more advanced thinking about differences as assets. This teacher candidate explains that culturally relevant science is the vehicle for leveraging children's differences as resources to benefit the class and lesson. Although the first exemplar focuses on cognitive and individualistic dimensions of the child, the second exemplar suggests that there may be multiple differences that would be a constructive learning tool for an entire classroom. The candidate moves beyond the individual learner to a discussion of the group and connection to culture. The two exemplars demonstrate varying levels of disruption but both position the child as the focus and as a positive contributing agent in instruction. Teacher candidates came away with increased confidence in interacting with families after their participation in the FMSNs. Many shared that watching family members and children learn was the best part of the FMSNs.

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Table 6 Challenging attitudes and beliefs.

Challenging Attitudes and Beliefs

Brief mention/Restate topic

Connection to course reading

Connection to prior coursework

Personal anecdotes

Consciousness of specific bias

I feel FMSN is a night where children are viewed as proficient language users who bring many experiences into the classroom. They weren't devalued because of their linguistic or cultural background; instead they were given equal opportunity. (PR spring 2012)

The myths that resonated with me most were that something is wrong with the student's language and that parents didn't care about their kids. Who doesn't care about their kids? Really? When you actually think about it, that notion is really quite stupid. If particular groups of parents did not care about their kids, or even cared relatively less for their kids than other groups, evolution would have selected them out. That trait would never last. As for the language myth, I appreciated what our guest had to say. Leave it to Americans to think we own language. On the contrary, language belongs to everyone, as does learning. I also appreciated what the article said about myth views not generally being voiced publicly. In the article this statement was referring to one specific myth, but I think it holds true for all. Many more people hold these deficient views than publicly voice them. This is why is so important, for me at least, to be an open book. When you let your thoughts and ideas pass by your lips it's a sort of filter, I think. Often when said out loud the issues with an idea quickly reveal themselves. Transparency and accountability keep you from making bad decisions and bad judgments, and are both important teacher qualities. (BM fall 2011)

I also enjoyed the video about multi-cultural science education. In my Native American flute class, we learned about oral tradition, and the validity of storytelling as a mode of learning. To successfully teach science to all, teachers must acknowledge that cookie-cutter teaching methods are likely falling short of the goal. (UE spring 2012).

Inclusion of all … I am really happy to see how new teachers are being taught to value and honor diversity among learners and their families. My older children, age 22 and 19, were not always blessed with teachers that value all children or think all children can or even want to learn. My son has many, profound disabilities and he has had teachers that openly verbalized hostility at having to “put up” with him in class. One special-ed teacher, who is still in the [X] School District, said my son was “not worth the cost of education because he would never learn anything. Let's replace this kind of thinking forever. (AC fall 2011)

Going off of the article read last week about myths and assumptions, I think this class really helped sink those ideas in. It was awesome to be able to talk as a group and bounce ideas off each other as to what science for all really means. I think it is extremely important that as a teacher I am aware of how I am teaching and what I am doing in my classroom to enforce these ideas. One thing I really want to make sure to focus on is changing my way of thinking. I want to focus on the positive and like one student in the class mentioned, remember that “circumstances don't define the outcome”. If I start changing the way I think now, when I am a teacher it is going to be a lot easier for me to automatically go with the assumptions we read about rather than focusing on the myths our society holds. (IR spring 2012)

… We all had so much fun … This experience helped restore my confidence in teaching … It was good practice interacting with parents and children. (GH spring 2012) I enjoyed watching the children, their siblings, and their parents engage in the various activities … when they learned something about science, their whole faces lit up; the joy of learning was present in our FMSN environment and it was wonderful! (IJ spring 2012) Candidates experienced firsthand that difference is not a drawback and does not impede learning or high-quality educational experiences. What was key for teacher candidates was watching this happen firsthand, which seemed more powerful than reading about asset-oriented views only from an assigned course text. Facing these emotions and grappling with new ideas and

experiences were important for building confidence and solidifying their developing culturally responsive perspectives. As they developed sociocultural and critical insights, the candidates could increasingly identify their previously held assumptions that changed because of the FMSNs experience. In many cases, the course readings opened new pathways of thinking, and the family night itself provided firsthand evidence that their traditional thinking ought to be reconsidered. Teacher candidate reflections, demonstrated below, highlighted the negative assumptions they had about parents and their participation in schooling. Howes (2002) highlights the importance of validating a child's background/language …. I was surprised how many parents attended FMSN. I fell subject to one of Howes' myths that parents aren't going to be involved if they come from a minority home or low socioeconomic background. As I interacted with families … I found that I had predicted unfairly. (EF spring 2012)

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Table 7 Grappling with resistance.

Grappling with Resistance

Brief mention/Restate topic

Connection to course reading

Connection to prior coursework

Personal anecdotes

Consciousness of specific bias

I was nervous about interacting with parents and the potential language barrier e once I got there all my insecurities went away. (SK spring 2012)

I found the article Transforming Deficit Myths … to be extremely engaging. I was so impacted by this article. Although I have taken the 216 course and in every course we talk about diversity, I found myself looking back on times that I have bought into those myths and thought the same things each of these covered. It was really interesting to think I always thought of myself as open to every child being able to learn and every child having something to bring, but an honest look at myself brought guilt into me. It was a little depressing to be honest. I felt terrible about myself. Then I read the assumptions and saw how I can personally change the way I think. By just transforming your assumptions to the positive, you can easily transform the way you think upright. After practice, I am positive I can just begin to naturally think this way. One thing I really want to take away is the assumption that parents don't care about their children's learning. This was one of the myths that really hit me hard. I am not very confrontational and not one to reach out generally, so reading this made me realize some changes I will have to make as a teacher. I would definitely be one of the teachers that assumes the parents don't care because I never hear from them or never see them. I need to change that way of thinking and process why this is not happening and what I can do to enable and empower parents to be more active in the way they feel comfortable. (RT spring 2012)

I read a quote that [instructor] posted on Bb from a professor at Tufts University. He said [in regards to frustrated students toward an assignment] “Good, then you have something to work with.” Reading that quote immediately made me think of another class that I took which talked about “a feeling of disequilibrium.” It pretty much is addressing a situation when students are feeling slightly uncomfortable with material presented in class. This feeling can become a catalyst and guide for a powerful learning moment. Because of that ‘uncomfortable feeling,’ I think it could represent a trigger for the student that something is not ‘fitting’ with their current knowledge. Thus, it is a signal that a time for learning is present! (GA spring 2012)

I also thought a lot about too much too soon this week. Learners need to be ready to learn in order for them to get much of anything other than frustration and resentment out of instruction. It is an awful feeling to get something pushed upon you that you are not ready for. Frustration or difficulty. (GI fall 2011).

When we were reflecting about the attributes that pre-service teachers bring and what we ourselves bring to the table, I started thinking about all things that influence who I am. I was thinking about my background, life experiences, and attitude toward life. These can have a huge impact on how and what we teach, so I thought it was really valuable to think about these things and how they influence us because they are so inherently a part of us we often don't give them much attention. I also thought it was important for us to be aware of these aspects of ourselves because as people we are inherently egocentric and see our own experience as the standard. That's not to say that we don't recognize that others have different life experience, but our first impulse is to use what we know and are familiar with as the standard to drawn upon. It's such a subconscious level of thought process that we typically aren't even aware it happening. I feel that as teachers we can't take the easy route like that and just let our thought process go without any contradiction. (HT fall 2011)

We found ourselves initially making assumptions that the lack of parental involvement was because of lack of interest. However, upon further discussion we found that the lack of participation may have been because of culture differences or language barriers. This was [an] important lesson for our group to learn; we learned how critical it is not to make assumptions, as well as how important it is to know about your students' culture and home language so that they feel valued and important for who they are. (ST fall 2011)

Howes (2002) article (among others) suggested possible myths that are pervasive in American schools. The teacher candidate cited above was able to find confirming evidence from FMSNs of a myth about family involvement and was able to admit that she had unfairly predicted what families would attend. Both attendance numbers and personal interactions with families helped challenge her commonplace assumption. The second exemplar above demonstrates a candidate's reflections about reasons for parental involvement. She had previously believed that lack of involvement

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Table 8 Leveraging culture and difference.

Leveraging Culture and Difference

Brief mention/Restate topic

Connection to course reading

Connection to prior coursework

Personal anecdotes

Consciousness of specific bias

I think it is really important to incorporate student's culture into the classroom. Not only will it make the students be more interested in the topic, it will also improve their selfesteem and self-worth. (MQ spring 2012)

I also thought that a lot of what we covered related directly to my ESOL endorsement. For example, the article “Transforming Deficit Myths,” talked about eliminating the idea that children are “at risk.” I have learned that many ELLs are seen at risk and teachers set lower standards for them. It was stated in the article that ELL's, “language and culture is deficient. They lack experiences, and these deficits cause them to have learning problems.” I have learned that it is important not to see students as at risk but value their differences and look at their funds of knowledge. (ES spring 2012)

In my ESOL class, we have been talking a lot about using students' Funds of Knowledge, so it was nice to see this discussed specifically in the context of science. (NP spring 2012)

I love that we are part of a program that emphasizes reaching out to all of our students and finding connections with them that don't trample their home language or culture. I've always liked the whole “tossed salad” metaphor for describing the U.S. (as opposed to “melting pot,” which just sounds … yucky) and I think that is a great approach to how a classroom and school should be viewed. (RA fall 2011)

I feel FMSN is a night where children are viewed as proficient language users who bring many experiences into the classroom. They weren't devalued because of their linguistic or cultural background; instead they were given equal opportunity. I also believe the FMSN is a place where kids can learn in rich, integrated settings, embedded with context. (TP spring 2012)

would be due to disinterest but was challenged to consider culture or language as potential reasons. Culture may influence beliefs about the parents' role in a school or indicate ways to interact with school officials as authorities. School events can sometimes be unwelcoming for bilingual families because their native language is not represented and they cannot communicate with school personnel. For these reasons and many others, some parents may be less inclined to participate in evenings such as FMSNs. The teacher candidate above describes how her thinking has been broadened to recognize multiple reasons for non-attendance. Due to coursework and firsthand experience with families, candidates reconsidered their myths about how often, how, or why parents would become involved in school events.

4.2. Grappling with resistance This theme more than the other three, illustrates the complexity of candidate's emotions, at times feeling apprehensive and nervous but at the same time looking forward to the event. One student drew upon a class example of the value of frustration and struggling and how it can be helpful in working through difficult ideas. What was perceived as an issue at the beginning of the evening went away once they began interacting with the children and families. Although there was the expression of still feeling unprepared there was also the feeling of looking forward. Initial reflections showed that many teacher candidates were nervous or apprehensive about the upcoming FMSN events and their ability to teach science effectively. The class required several components that were perhaps unexpected and instilled discomfort: the actual practice of science with real learners, work with families in diverse contexts, and understanding of science content. This course expected more than the traditional class time in the university classroom, reading and writing assignments, and narrow focus on science. Therefore, ample preparation and building trust ahead of time was crucial for candidates to have a successful experience at FMSNs and for it to be a useful resource in raising consciousness. After the events, debriefing, and reflection, they indicated they were more enthusiastic and confident about

teaching science. I was not excited at first, but after the class I am super excited now. I feel more prepared, secure, and confident. (AB fall 2011) Before this class I was extremely apprehensive about the FMSN; but exploring was fun and I learned a lot (gained more science knowledge) … I still feel nervous and underprepared, but look forward to what it will teach me. (CD spring 2012) Emotions such as nervousness, confidence, and security are a significant part of teacher candidates' learning and, thus, should be addressed while unsettling their commonplace notions of teaching and learning. Disruption of biases and perceptions can cause emotions in the learner that could be viewed as a hindrance or resource, depending on the instructor's process of preparing candidates and building their confidence to handle unknown and unexpected learning challenges. Many teacher candidates expressed initial feelings of anxiety about working with diverse families and children. In this course, they were expected to closely participate with people different from them in terms of language, culture, and interactional styles. I found it challenging to work with students that didn't share my home language. (EF spring 2012) I was nervous about interacting with parents and the potential language barrierdonce I got there insecurities went away (GH spring 2012) Use of words like “barrier” indicated a focus on the negative instead of positive, indicating the belief that cultural difference is an obstacle rather than an asset. Teacher candidates had preconceived notions about how language differences would be a hindrance and would pose insurmountable challenges. This overriding concern seemed to predominate initially over the possibility of fun and engaged learning. As indicated by these exemplars, candidates learned that language differences are likely to not stand in the way of shared learning experiences and mutual enjoyment of content.

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Table 9 Improvising pedagogical knowledge.

Improvising Pedagogical Connections

Brief mention/Restate topic

Connection to course reading

Connection to prior course-work

Personal anecdotes

Consciousness of specific bias

Teaching isn't just about developing activities for kids. We need to develop activities that are related to student's interests, culture, and needs. (EM, fall 2011)

To successfully teach science to all, teachers must acknowledge that cookie-cutter teaching methods are likely falling short of the goal. By attempting to make use of teaching tools invented by people of non-Western culture, such as that of Native Americans, we not only invite another mode of teaching and learning into the classroom, but also stress the importance of a multicultural education. Howes consolidates this thinking when she declares: “In the interests of enacting the imperative to educate all children well in science, a great deal can be gained by attending to the literature concerning teaching diverse populations” (848). Within this packed sentence, I find the “imperative to educate all children well in science” to be extremely important. First, we must acknowledge that teaching all children science should not be a goal, but a mandate. Next, we must teach children science well. This means creating interactive, curriculum based, standard based science lessons. A great example of this was the Family Math and Science night. It not only gave a multitude of standards-based science lesson opportunities to students, but also offered support for diverse populations. I am looking forward to creating more opportunities like this for my community, and for my future school. (BA spring 2012)

Relating this teaching class to some of my other teaching classes has taught me how to incorporate many different subjects into one lesson plan. For example, in a science lesson plan you can also incorporate a math lesson and/or art lesson. (FA, Fall 2011)

I found moments challenging. FMSN was new to me and I didn't have much experience working with students in an informal way … I had to change my approach and be more flexible. (GA spring 2012)

Asking questions that encouraged students to develop their own experiment to find the answer was beneficial. For example, asking students “Do you think it's possible to make the magnet stronger?” allowed students to try adding different magnets to see if it became stronger and could hold more material. Students were able to develop their own understanding of the concept without me directly teaching them the answer (which they probably would not remember). (YZ spring 2012)

4.3. Leveraging culture and difference In this theme we noticed comments on language and culture, discussion of community and family resources and what they as teacher candidates could learn from interacting with diverse children and families. One of the aspects of this theme that stood out is how it is reflective of the broader program goals. Most candidates

mention in some way how the themes of culture and difference are found in other parts of their coursework. One candidate noted in particular how it was nice to see Funds of Knowledge discussed in the context of science. By being immersed in a bilingual setting with families speaking multiple languages, teacher candidates could see the power and benefit of bilingualism to learners. Instead of a traditional view of

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an individual ELL child in a classroom who needs extra help and is vulnerable to low achievement without special services, at FMSNs the candidates faced a different scenario in which family members and university students bilingually made meaning together about science. Multiple languages were assets for communication, and learners were active learners as they moved back and forth across languages in relation to specific content topics. A candidate's reflection about a FMSN experience demonstrates the disruption of commonplace perspectives on bilingualism. If anyone who thinks these kids are ‘language deficit’ had seen the kids at these events describing their science understandings first to their parents in Spanish and then to me in English, they could never say they were ‘language deficit. (QR fall 2011) This powerful exemplar shows raised consciousness from seeing language in action in which a child used bilingualism to learn content, to translate this content knowledge across two languages, and to linguistically navigate across multiple interlocutors. Being part of this experience painted a compelling portrait for the teacher candidate of bilingualism as an asset. Family Math and Science Nights offer children, families and teachers a different context in which to interact with one another. Rather than being in the teacher's classroom focusing on the teacher/ learner dyad, the experience at FMSN broadens the notions of teacher and learner to incorporate family and community. These interactions are about coming together as a community to engage and explore interesting activities related to science and mathematics. The FMSNs push teacher candidates to view schooling as more than what occurs in a classroom and with a greater number of participants than an individual child and teacher, as described below. The Family Math and Science Nights can help address many school-community issues. Families with all sorts of socioeconomic statuses, languages, culture, etc. all attend the same event for the sake of learning; a sense of community collaboration and acceptance is fostered. (SK spring 2012) This example illustrates the teacher candidate's understanding of the broader context of race, class, language and how an event such as this can provide a space to learn with and from each other. Building collaboration across families requires, as noted above, a space in which difference is embraced. Difference not only includes ethnicity but also refers to socioeconomic status, language, culture, and beyond. Through this experience, candidates come face to face with multiple levels of difference that can be utilized as benefits in their science instruction.

4.4. Improvising pedagogical connections In this theme we were paying attention to how candidates talked about the role of a teacher and how it pushed them to become more of a guide and facilitator, listening more and asking open-ended questions. Teacher candidates make note of the informal context of Family Math and Science Nights that allowed them to let go of some of their prior assumptions about teaching and be more flexible and responsive to the children. Post-FMSN reflections showed that candidates were challenged to think differently about science teaching and had opportunities to try out methods that were new to them. Challenges to their thinking are evidenced by their reflections on ideas such as inquiry and questioning as a way to elicit children's thinking. They also shared examples of how these strategies were effective tools in their interactions with children and families.

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In the following two excerpts, candidates described the experience of working with actual learners that require the ability to think on one's feet. Because they worked with children and families, they could not rely on pre-scripted lesson plans that they could follow like a recipe. Real learners live in the moment and pursue their interests in unexpected ways, thereby demanding that the teacher candidates be flexible and adaptable. The context required that they focus on the scientific “big ideas” and then shape their questions, support, and activity to guide learners towards scientific understandings. Two candidates described their developing flexibility and valuing of discomfort as part of the learning process. Personally I have issues with things not falling into place as planned … these few weeks have been good practice for me in being flexible … participating in FMSN helps even moredour activities and students will “push my abilities to be flexible to the max.” Flexibility in science is especially important! Science is dynamic. (KL fall 2011) I found moments challenging. FMSN was new to me and I didn't have much experience working with students in an informal way … I had to change my approach and ‘be flexible’. If things are not going as well as I'd hope, I need to keep in mind that I myself am still a learner. The ‘uncomfortable feeling’ may be a signal that ‘learning is present.’ I want to give students a chance to “work through the frustration. (MN spring 2012) The second excerpt demonstrates a powerful connection between children as learners and the teacher candidates as learner in the sense that their discomfort is an important indicator of learning. Rather than see herself as teacher-as-authority or see the lesson as an unwavering script, she demonstrated a view of herself as a learner and as a guide who nudges learners towards understanding rather than gives the answers. Candidates also commented on their developing approaches for guiding learners towards scientific understandings. They are disrupting traditional notions of the teacher as depositor of knowledge to see the teacher instead as a facilitator for learners to come to their own conclusions. In the excerpts below, the candidates discuss their realizations about facilitating children's cooperative learning and natural discovery process. I realize there needs to be lots of scaffolding on teacher's part for effective cooperative learning. (EF spring 2012) It was fascinating watching them think it over and develop different theories and it really proved how the idea of letting them discover while the teacher provides engaging questions works … It also showed how much more it meant to them when they came to the conclusion … how excited they were when they got to watch their idea be successful. (OP fall 2011) Using questioning as a strategy to guide children's learning was a powerful approach that candidates had the opportunity to practice. They facilitated open-ended inquiry explorations and were accepting of children's individual theories and approximations of science concepts as teacher candidates practiced inserting questions that would move children towards solid conclusions and their successes in trying out ideas. This valuable experience supported their growing notions of teacher as guide or facilitator rather than indisputable authority or technician.

5. Discussion and implications The central argument of this paper is that the FMSN event is

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important for providing a context for learning to teach science outside the traditional university classroom but alone is not enough for candidates who require ongoing interaction with the instructor and each other to analyze and reflect on their own biases, privileges, and assumptions. Because we focused on FMSNs as a context for this analysis, the candidates' interactions with culturally and linguistically diverse families and children bring to the surface issues of difference and inequity that are used for self-reflection and supported disruption of traditional viewpoints. The FMSN context by itself would not necessarily result in disruption or transformed ways of interacting with families and children. It is the supported dialogue and introspection that occurs in the methods course that is essential for changing candidates' preparedness for teaching diverse populations. In this process, we recognize that work with teacher candidates requires multiple iterations of practice, engagements with theory, and critical reflections in order to develop culturally responsive teaching practices; an ongoing process that we hope extends beyond the ten weeks of this course. There is no finale or magical end point that signifies arrival at some predetermined way of thinking; rather, we embark with teacher candidates on a journey to reconsider the ideologies and perspectives that they hold. We return to the attributes of culturally responsive teaching and discuss in what ways these findings help us answer our research questions; 1) How does this course leverage the community context of FMSN to support the actions of becoming a culturally responsive teacher? (2) How do teacher candidates reflect about developing culturally responsive practices through the specific context of Family Math and Science Nights? 5.1. Creating more opportunities for interaction and reflection Our findings suggest that the two FMSNs provided a rich context for interactions and reflections, but two events were not enough to actually move teacher candidates through the processes that Gay (2013) posits are necessary for culturally responsive teaching. These two events provided a space to start this work but in the end only touched the surface of the work necessary to produce meaningful change. Although we saw some evidence of their insights, they were unstable moving back and forth between traditional ideas and newly developing consciousness. Although candidates were good at providing the words that they thought the instructor wanted to hear, we were not convinced that these ideas would show up in their practice. Whereas, they talked about student differences as advantageous based on these two interactions, we question how stable these beliefs would be given the many challenges novice teachers face. There was no opportunity to follow up on this in their developing practice. Based on findings from this initial study we redesigned the science methods course and built in multiple opportunities for candidates to engage with children in the dual language schools (Bottoms, et al., 2015). Furthermore, we required focused and purposeful reflections and analysis of videos of their interactions with the children. The teacher candidates now engage in multiple cycles of enactment and continuously reexamine their developing practice. To prepare them for the deeper relational aspects and introspection, candidates begin work on cultural responsiveness at FMSNs in an earlier class in their program; this earlier course provides a foundation that they can draw from while working with the children in the methods course. 5.2. Integrating emotions to reconceptualize practice Findings indicate that emotions were an important part of the process of developing culturally responsive teaching through

FMSNs. Teacher candidates ran the gamut of emotions from excited, to apprehensive, to insecure, indicating the wide range of reactions to the work they were asked to do. Through the process of FMSNs, debriefing and reflection, teacher candidates emotions shifted from resistance to a more positive sense of preparedness and optimism. This required substantial guidance and effort by the instructor in order to utilize emotions as a useful asset to transform candidates thinking (Thiemens, 2015). The emotional process of developing culturally responsive teaching means that the instructor has to be able to process these emotions and move the work forward. The instructor has to be invested in exploring her own emotional process as well as finding ways to connect these emotions to the broader context and conceptualize them through a lens of culturally responsive teaching. Thiemens (2015) developed a four-part framework of 1) provoking, 2) grappling, 3) supporting, and 4) reflecting to describe this type of teaching and learning. 5.3. Building partnerships in community The FMSNs provided an opportunity for teacher candidates to see bilingualism in action with learners using different languages across relationships with different people, for example their siblings or parents. They observed children discussing science concepts in multiple languages, demonstrating high-level communication skills across contexts. FMSNs provided an example of “diversity in action” in which a sense of community was built across languages, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses. Candidates' reflections clearly demonstrated that engaging in this experience shifted their thinking and provided a window through which they could see phenomena from their coursework come to life in an educational context. Although they had developed a sense of an asset view of families, they did not get to the point where they could actually develop interactional practices to take advantage of language differences in productive ways or navigate across the differences to facilitate content learning (Bottoms, et al., 2015, Ciechanowski, Bottoms, Talamantes, Hernandez, & Fonseca, 2016). More focus needs to be placed on the instructional practices that could facilitate navigating across cultural, linguistic, and other differences. Based on these findings we are exploring more deeply parents as partners and how the science instruction does or does not facilitate connections to families (Ciechanowski, et al., 2016). A significant component of our research is having conversations with the families to understand their engagement and needs, and to discuss with our educational partners (formal and informal) ways to connect science to families lives and the communities in which they live. 5.4. Teaching content through culture and community resources Teacher candidates expressed discomfort in not having a definite plan and having to think on their feet. Our data supported the notion that novices have a difficult time being flexible and creatively adaptive in their practices and require scaffolding and structure to learn how to improvise. Because of the informal FMSN context, teacher candidates had to shift their focus to pay attention to what children were saying and doing rather than follow a predetermined script. Furthermore, the candidates learned how to ask questions as a strategy to understand children's thinking and to guide their learning. Based on the findings, candidates learned that flexibility was a strength, however, the structure did not allow them to improvise or use their developing repertoires (Sawyer, 2004). Because they only interacted with particular families on one occasion they did not get to know the families and therefore, were not able to draw upon the

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family or community resources in shaping the science instruction. These findings indicated a need for an articulated framework for how teacher candidates would employ knowledge from children and families to develop meaningful science interactions. We created a three-part framework of noticing, questioning and connecting to the standards (Ciechanowski, et al., 2015). This model highlights the importance of this process of developing culturally responsive practices within multicultural science contexts. The findings from this study on Family Math and Science Nights have been the springboard of FIESTAS to analyze more closely different strands of complex research focused on culturally responsive teaching and engaged research. 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