Using a case study approach, this manuscript describes the professional transformation of Gary--an Anglo-European, male novice teacher--by focusing on his first two years of teaching in a culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged school in the USA. As a participant of a larger hybrid, intervention project with peers, Gary received multiple hands-on and minds-on experiences for implementing sociotransformative constructivism (sTc) during the science methods courses and two summer institutes. sTc integrates cross-cultural education with social constructivism to provide a framework for teaching and learning that is more critical, inclusive, relevant and connected to students’ everyday lives.

Using the structure-agency dialectic as an analytic tool, Gary’s emerging sense of agency is documented in terms of two major themes: institutional challenges and sociocultural challenges. Moving away from traditional narratives of despair, this paper offers instead a narrative of engagement--a frank account of the struggles beginning teachers are likely to encounter (especially in culturally diverse contexts), as well as the potential successes they could enact through their agency. Suggestions are provided for enhancing the professional preparation of science teachers and for teacher education programs and school districts to move beyond good intentions and mission statements toward more transformative action. 

Bio

Dr. Rodriguez is the Mary Endres Chair in Elementary Teacher Education and Professor of Cross-Cultural Science Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University.  His research focuses on the use of sociotransformative constructivism (sTc) as a theoretical framework that merges multicultural education tenets (as a theory of social justice) with social constructivism (as a theory of learning). Thus, Dr. Rodriguez is investigating how teachers can make their pedagogy and curriculum more culturally and socially relevant to all students, as well as how teachers can better integrate STEM across all curriculum subjects.

Currently, Dr. Rodriguez is the PI of the 20/20 Vision for Transdisciplinary Cross-Cultural STEM Project. This study brings together teacher education faculty from across all the curriculum areas to collaborate in the design of cross-cultural and socially relevant integrated STEM modules.

Dr. Rodriguez’s work has been published in various journals such as, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Research in Science Education, the Journal of Teacher Education, Theory into Practice, and many others. One of his previously published articles was selected for the Multicultural Science Education, Equity and Social Justice special issue of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST). For this special issue, 9 of the most influential science education articles in the previous 30 years were selected for re-print. The selected article was: Strategies for counter-resistance: Toward sociotransformative constructivism and learning to teach science for diversity and for understanding (re-printed in JRST, November 2011). Dr. Rodriguez has also edited and co-edited several research-based books. The co-edited volume with Rick Kitchen (math education) entitled, Preparing Prospective Mathematics and Science Teachers to Teach for Diversity: Promising Strategies for Transformative Action (2005), was selected as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2005 by Choice Magazine.

Dr. Rodriguez received the Kappa Delta Pi – Teaching and Teacher Education Research Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2000, and the New Mexico State University’s Award for Exceptional Achievements in Creative Scholarly Activity in 2002.