| Rebecca Callahan
University of Georgia
Math teachers' pedagogical practices: Effects on linguistic minority students' STEM preparation and participation
Increasingly, successful participation in adult society is determined by completion of some post-secondary education, especially as it pertains to the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. At present, linguistic minority young adults participate in higher education and enter into STEM careers at lower rates than their native English-speaking peers (Fry, 2002; NCES, 1998). Whether this is due to aptitude or pedagogy and preparation is an empirical question. Linguistic minority students in U.S. schools must not only master academic content, but they must do so in a language unfamiliar to them. Faced with the challenge of simultaneously learning language and content, linguistic minority students in particular may benefit from interactive pedagogical practices as opposed to a lecture-based approach. This study proposes to use data from the NCES Educational Longitudinal Study 2002-2006 (ELS) to determine the types of pedagogical practices that linguistic minority students experience in high school math courses, and how pedagogical practices influence linguistic minority students' academic achievement outcomes, STEM preparation and participation in higher education. Fortunately, not only are the pedagogical practices these students experience measurable, but they are also malleable through educational policy. Exploring the relationship between pedagogical practices and STEM achievement for linguistic minority students will contribute to educational policy designed to increase their participation in the STEM pipeline.
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