NSF Award
1540830
With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, the Teaching for Equity in Appalachia in Mathematics and Science, TEAMS, is recruiting undergraduate majors in mathematics, biology, chemistry, geology, or physics or mathematics or science professionals and preparing them to become grades 9-12 Mathematics or Science teachers. The project is funding 20-30 teachers over 4 years. In this project, Appalachian State University is collaborating with members of the Appalachian Public School Partnership, including Alleghany, Alexander, and Avery County Schools. Specific to the project is a focus on preparing teachers for the cultural contexts of teaching mathematics and science content in rural schools and development of leadership capacity among Noyce teachers through mentoring and course experiences. <br/><br/>The project is based on the work of Shulman Pedagogical Content Knowledge developed in 1987 as further defined by Ball and Bass in their work of 2002, Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, and the UTeach model developed and practiced at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to their Bachelor's degree in a science or math major, the Scholars will earn a Graduate Certificate in Secondary Teaching and a licensure for secondary teaching in the appropriate area. Special attention will be paid to the formation of teacher cohorts in acknowledgement of the isolation often felt by teachers in the small rural schools typical of the area they will serve. Research concerning effective means of recruiting and retaining teachers in these small rural areas will be done using a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection) approach.
