Background: This dissertation examines the pervasive influence of the white and colonial imaginary in shaping educational narratives that promote neoliberal success and capitalism, impacting the minds of successive generations. Contemporary youth perceive these narratives as detrimental, contributing to racial violence, climate-induced…

This dissertation investigates how embodied learning within a Mixed Reality (MR) environment supports young children's science learning, focusing on a honeybee system. To do so, I designed three types of activities within an MR environment to enable young children to assume different perspectives as they create embodied models of honeybees as…

Computer Science (CS) is a rapidly growing field that impacts almost every aspect of students' lives. From media consumption to future careers in medicine, agriculture, security, finance, and other areas, understanding computer programming is essential for 21st-century society and careers. Over the next decade, employment opportunities in computer…

This dissertation investigates the issue of gender stratification within engineering and other STEM-related fields. The dissertation is divided into three articles that address different aspects of the problem and propose potential solutions. Article 1 explores the persistent gender imbalance within STEM fields, particularly in engineering and…

In recent years there has been an increased push for K-12 computer science education. A major reason for this push is the growing evidence that introducing young children to coding can enhance their interest and promote their learning of foundational skills needed to thrive in today's technologically rich world. However, little research has…

Efforts to understand growth and disparities in science achievement have mainly been focused on the middle and high school grades in studies of K-12 science education, leaving a gap in the research about the early elementary years. This study used a nationally-representative sample of students in Grades K-2 to examine science achievement and…

Jung and Won's (2018) review of elementary school ER found a lack of understanding of instructional practices for ER with young children. Other researchers have called for further studies into what effective classroom orchestration and interaction look like within ER classrooms (Ioannou & Makridou, 2018; Xia & Zhong, 2019). This study was…

The consistent prevalence of computer science in our society and the urgent need for STEM professionals in the U.S. raised the need for computer science education at the K-8 level. Researchers have examined the challenges, possible approaches, and contents of teaching computer science. However, there has been limited research on teachers'…

This dissertation presents three papers centered on understanding how we might learn using the body to learn. The data for these papers is drawn from classroom data where 2nd graders (N = 17) learn about particle behavior by engaging with the Science Through Technologically Enhanced Play (STEP) simulation. The first paper focuses on how two…

This study examines how teachers can structure and use pretend play for teaching science, as well as the impact it has on students' agency, engagement, and discussion. Using interaction analysis, I examine two teachers in two classrooms (n=52) of first and second grade students (6-8 years) at a progressive elementary school. To shed light on how…

This study provides an in-depth examination of how a second-grade teacher used interactive read-alouds of informational texts to engage her students across four disciplines--science, math, social studies, and language arts. Data included ten semi-structured interviews with a Midwestern public school second-grade teacher as well as nine…

The United States faces high demand for science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) professionals and a scarce supply of individuals who pursue STEM careers, especially minority populations in the U.S with proficiency in a language other than English. The primary goal of this research was to determine the impact of use of Spanish in…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether possible relationships might exist between the quality of reform-based science instruction and science and reading achievement in second grade. The study also examined separately possible interactions between quality of instruction and gender and race. The study involved an analysis of data…

This study applied four frameworks from academic literature in the areas of leadership, change process, 21st-century skills, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) to understand the various factors providing for success and participation of a school in the national science fair initiative (Programa…

The purpose of this study is to understand how teacher identity influences elementary teachers' science practices from multiple perspective---the teacher's self-reported identity, the researcher's perspective, and the students' perspectives. Two frameworks on identity were synthesized and used in this research. The first, developed by Gee…