Collaborative Research: Teaching for the Anthropocene: Teacher Learning and Practice for Critical Systems Thinking

Socio-environmental issues are both a key to secondary student interest in science and also a difficult terrain for teachers to navigate. Problems like climate change have not only scientific but also social, political and ethical aspects. In order to prepare students for fully understanding such issues, attention needs to be given to how teachers can be supported and learn for effective instruction.

This four-year project enacts and researches a teacher professional development program, “Teaching for the Anthropocene,” with middle and high school science teachers across three settings (the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern Massachusetts, and London, UK). It brings a concept of "critical systems thinking," which is a blend of two ideas. One of them is systems thinking, which requires students to understand not only scientific mechanisms of cause and effect, but also how systems of these come together to explain natural phenomena.

The other is critical thinking, which casts light upon ways that different perspectives students bring to classrooms can support learning. This blend orients the project well to benefit society for several reasons. First, systems thinking is an important goal generally according to recent research in science education.

Second, the project couches systems thinking in ecology and environmental science, which are areas of social relevance and therefore attention in student lives. Third, the project takes a broad perspective about how these learning goals should be taught so that all students’ perspectives can be taken into account during instruction, including those historically underrepresented in STEM.

The project investigates how critical systems thinking may enhance teachers’ understanding of socioenvironmental issues and support them to integrate those understandings into their curriculum and teaching. The project also identifies potential challenges educators may face as well as what local conditions and program supports help them practically apply critical systems thinking in their classrooms.

This study serves directly approximately 4000 students and contributes to broader understandings of effective STEM education that can prepare a range of diverse learners to take on the challenges of current complex socioenvironmental issues.

This multi-site professional development initiative for middle and high school science teachers implements and examines how critical systems thinking can inform science teachers’ pedagogical practices and curriculum development in relation to socioenvironmental issues. More specifically, the study examines 1) how three cohorts of science teachers across three different geographic settings make sense of and implement ideas from two-year multi-site professional development focused on critical systems thinking within their curriculum and teaching practices; and 2) how program and contextual conditions support that meaning-making and implementation.

The professional development model uses collaborative activities like data-based modeling, contextual storytelling, and local communities of practice to support teachers to refine their content expertise and develop deeper onto-epistemological and ethical understandings crucial for addressing multifaceted socioenvironmental issues with diverse learners. The project leverages two methodologies.

First, a multi-site case study methodology provides a holistic analysis of the impact of the interventions on teaching practices and curriculum integration across three diverse educational settings and at multiple levels (individual teacher, local teacher cohort, and cross-cohort). Second, Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis provides an analysis of necessary and sufficient conditions for teacher meaning-making and implementation across the three settings.

This work contributes to understandings of how to (1) support teachers with tools to engage with science as a discipline that is directly connected to socioenvironmental issues, and (2) promote equitable teaching practices by addressing the ethical and onto-epistemological aspects of science, ensuring that all students have access to high-quality science education.

The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) is an applied research program that seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for funded projects.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.