Unpacking the Evolving Understandings That STEM Teachers Have of Educating Students in “High Needs Districts”: An Examination of a Noyce Ambassadors Teacher Education Program

Teacher preparation programs are criticized for not fully preparing educators to teach in culturally responsive ways. In a federally funded Noyce program designed to train Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educators for teaching in “high needs districts,” we conducted a longitudinal case study that examined teachers’ evolving understandings of educating students using culturally relevant pedagogy. We found that teachers’ ideas about their role in high needs districts either evolved over time to be more asset-based and culturally relevant or remained stagnant with deficit views being reinforced. Findings suggest that insufficient training was provided for teachers’ knowledge of what the high needs district label means for their role in the teaching process, and the development of racial literacies and sociopolitical consciousness could help fill that gap.