Conference Agenda

Schooling in the 21st century has been particularly impacted by the movement of people, whether voluntary or involuntary. The European Commission (2023) anticipates over 130 million displaced people worldwide by the end of 2024, leading to previously unseen levels of diversity in the classroom. As stated in the ECER 2024 call, this “reality of mass migration and its impact on how we think of ourselves, our borders, and our identity” requires educators to reflect critically on their work and consider concrete ways in which they can teach all students equitably regardless of culture, language, and/or dis/ability (we use “dis/ability” to show that “disability” is a social construction that is in opposition to “ability,” not something that exists within an individual person).

Globally, we find ourselves in an age of uncertainty, but educators have been grappling with culturally relevant and inclusive curricula for decades. Culturally relevant pedagogies act as a response to changing student needs and have provided space for teachers to “link principles of learning with deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture” (Ladson-Billings, 2014), as students have better learning outcomes when academic materials are made relevant to their lives (Gay, 2000) and their cultures and linguistic practices are maintained (Paris, 2012). European scholars have recognized the need for supporting teachers to work with diverse populations (Krulatz et al., 2018) and called for increased efforts by teacher education programs (Author, 2023; Subasi Sing & Akar, 2021) and school leaders (Brown et al., 2022) to “translate policies into practice” (p. 602) by preparing teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Inclusive educators have also built upon these assets-based pedagogies by affirming diversity of ability and creating curricula that aim to remove barriers in schools rather than attempting to change and assimilate students (Baglieri et al., 2011).

Yet the literature suggests that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers are often the most reluctant to adopt culturally relevant teaching (Barton, 2003; Colina Neri, Lozano, & Gomez, 2018; Gutierrez, 2013) and that inclusive pedagogies are not well integrated into science education (Stinken-Rösner, et al., 2020). Though STEM teachers agree with an inclusion of cultural and racial topics in academics, “they often question their relevance to the hard sciences” (Colina Neri et al., 2018). Instead, many believe cultural relevance is more appropriate for the humanities classroom and pride themselves on the objectivity believed to be inherent to science and mathematics (Schultz et al., 2023). As a result, “there is little research to date focusing explicitly on how to organize culturally relevant pedagogy in [STEM] classrooms” (Suad Nasir et al., 2008, p. 224). Similarly, Stinken-Rösner and colleagues (2020) have argued that “a dialogue between domains of inclusive pedagogy and specific subjects rarely occurs” (p. 30). They propose inclusive science education as a “new theoretical approach” (p. 40). There is clearly work to be done in developing STEM curricula accessible to and by diverse student populations.

In line with the theme of creating more inclusive educational communities, the purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which pre-service STEM teachers in a clinically rich, social justice-oriented teacher residency program create curricula that affirm and leverage diversity to support all students’ STEM learning. We do this by asking, (1) How are STEM teaching residents conceptualizing culturally relevant and inclusive curriculum design? and (2) How are they enacting these conceptualizations through curricular choices? This inquiry will suggest opportunities for STEM teachers to incorporate culturally relevant and inclusive pedagogies, as well as address challenges that arise that can be addressed by teacher educators and policy makers.

Preservice teaching students have been presenting with a weaker understanding of mathematics and anxiety towards the subject (Brown et al., 2012; Jensen et al., 2022). Personal beliefs about the subject, noted in tutorials and in lectures and seminars demonstrate that many students have a lower mathematics self -concept. Mathematics self - concept refers to a person’s belief about their competence in mathematics (Rossi et al., 2022; Marsh, 1986). The understanding of the link between mathematics anxiety and dyscalculia is developing (Devine et al., 2018) but its prevalence in preservice teachers and its impact on mathematical self-concept requires further exploration.

From September 2013 anyone wishing to train as a teacher in England had to pass ‘skills tests’ in English and mathematics (DFE, 2001). The introduction of these tests was aimed at improving the quality of candidates entering the profession. Despite objections from the profession and the teaching unions regarding the loss of many potential teachers and the undermining of the profession, it took a further 7 years for the tests to be scrapped. The replacement for the tests put the responsibility on both the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provider and the candidate to assure that they have met the standard of the fundamental skills. Universities therefore need to assure that any candidates that are recommended for qualified teacher status demonstrate competency but also that support is provided to enable the candidates to become competent.

All ITT students must have attained the equivalence to a ‘C’ grade at GCSE (DfE, 2023, C1.1), England’s end of compulsory school exam, as minimum and so must have studied the subject for a minimum of 12 years. Therefore, the time to develop subject knowledge, confidence and appreciation of mathematics has been offered but so too is the chance for shallow and disconnected learning, crises of confidence and a lack of appreciation of the subject. A grade C or higher may open the door to further study but it may have been achieved through rote learning and recall rather than understanding (Chinn, 2020) and this can lead to many students who have disengaged with the subject.

The pressure to keep up with their peers may be a contributing factor to the development of anxiety around the subject. Mathematical anxiety is complex and multifaceted. It may occur for many reasons. Broadly speaking it is a negative emotional reaction to mathematics (Carey et al., 2019) which can be characterized by low mathematical confidence and expectations of success, apprehension, fear, mental blocks, reduced working memory, inaccurate perceptions of what it is to be a mathematician, avoidance, and helplessness (Chinn, 2020). The manifestation of mathematical anxiety can be seen in emotional, behavioural and physiological responses.

The development of mathematical anxiety can be attributed to a range of different factors. Many students enter ITT believing that they have a specific learning difficulty around numbers and the understanding of mathematics however there can also be many contributing reasons for this too. Students may have dyscalculia; however, this condition may not have been formally diagnosed. Dyscalculia is defined as a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. Unexpected in relation to age and level of education, mathematics difficulties are best thought of as a continuum where dyscalculia falls at one end of the spectrum and will be distinguishable from other mathematics issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including subitising, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, and ordering. It can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety and medical conditions (SASC,2019).