Over the recent years, identity has become one of the most central theoretical concept and topics of scholarship in a number of disciplines, including science education. In this volume, leading science educators articulate in carefully prepared case studies their theoretical perspective on science, learning, and identity. More importantly, the authors of the chapters that in the different parts of the book engage each other in a collaboratively written chapter concerning some of the central issues that have arisen from their individual studies; and in particular they engage each other over the similarities and differences between their approaches. This book, which features detailed case studies of identity as both resource and outcomes of learners in a variety of settings, will be of interest to anyone concerned with learning science in and out-of schools. The book also caters for readers who have wondered about how identity mediates science learning and, simultaneously, how engagement in science-related tasks and activities mediates the emergence and development of identities. The general tenor of all chapters is a cultural-historical and sociocultural framework that is brought to issues of identity, thereby inherently transcending the individual person and linking identity to cultural possibilities.

Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and psychological and anthropological studies of learning. Learning Science in Informal Environments draws together disparate literatures, synthesizes the state of knowledge, and articulates a common framework for the next generation of research on learning science in informal environments across a life span. Contributors include recognized experts in a range of disciplines-research and evaluation, exhibit designers, program developers, and educators. They also have experience in a range of settings-museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, aquariums, zoos, state parks, and botanical gardens. Learning Science in Informal Environments is an invaluable guide for program and exhibit designers, evaluators, staff of science-rich informal learning institutions and community-based organizations, scientists interested in educational outreach, federal science agency education staff, and K-12 science educators.

Research in science education is now an international activity. This book asks for the first time, Does this research activity have an identity? -It uses the significant studies of more than 75 researchers in 15 countries to see to what extent they provide evidence for an identity as a distinctive field of research. -It considers trends in the research over time, and looks particularly at what progression in the research entails. -It provides insight into how researchers influence each other and how involvement in research affects the being of the researcher as a person. -It addresses the relation between research and practice in a manner that sees teaching and learning in the science classroom as interdependent with national policies and curriculum traditions about science. It gives graduate students and other early researchers an unusual overview of their research area as a whole. Established researchers will be interested in, and challenged by, the identity the author ascribes to the research and by the plea he makes for the science content itself to be seen as problematic.

Science as Psychology reveals the complexity and richness of rationality by demonstrating how social relationships, emotion, culture, and identity are implicated in the problem-solving practices of laboratory scientists. In this study, the authors gather and analyze interview and observational data from innovation-focused laboratories in the engineering sciences to show how the complex practices of laboratory research scientists provide rich psychological insights, and how a better understanding of science practice facilitates understanding of human beings more generally. The study focuses not on dismantling the rational core of scientific practice, but on illustrating how social, personal, and cognitive processes are intricately woven together in scientific thinking. The book is thus a contribution to science studies, the psychology of science, and general psychology.

"A focus on STEM engages our curiosity, beckons us to marvel, to ask questions, to cultivate childlike wonder, and alongside that a pursuit to understand. This is the joy of STEM." -Wendy Ward Hoffer STEM content can feel daunting. Many elementary teachers don't yet think of themselves as mathematicians or scientists and lack confidence in their abilities to teach STEM content. Who you are as a teacher informs who your students become. Consciously or unconsciously, your beliefs about STEM impact your behavior and instruction. Wendy Ward Hoffer believes that we can each grow our own confidence and competence as STEM thinker and learners, then intentionally pass these attributes on to our students. With Wendy's guidance, you will learn how to embrace a growth mindset and model the curiosity, persistence, flexibility, and positive regard for STEM needed to design and facilitate rich STEM experiences for all students. Each chapter includes current research findings along with concrete, practical approaches to help you make STEM learning meaningful and to foster students' independence as mathematicians and scientists. We are all scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technology creators and users, making sense of our own worlds every day. Bring positive STEM identities to life in your classroom and watch your students develop the dispositions and habits of mind that will spark bright STEM futures.

The overarching goal of this book volume is to illuminate how research on science teacher identity has deepened and complicated our understanding of the role of identity in examining teacher learning and development. The collective chapters, both theoretical and empirical, present an array of conceptual underpinnings that have been used to frame science teacher identity, document the various methodological approaches that researchers have implemented in order to study science teacher identity within various contexts, and offer empirical evidence about science teacher identity development. The findings of the studies presented in this volume support the argument that teacher identity is a dynamic, multidimensional and comprehensive construct, which provides a powerful lens for studying science teacher learning and development for various reasons. First, it pushes our boundaries by extending our definitions of science teacher learning and development as it proposes new ways of conceptualizing the processes of becoming a science teacher. Second, it emphasizes the role of the context on science teacher learning and development and pays attention to the experiences that teachers have as members of various communities. Third, it allows us to examine the impact of various sub-identities, personal histories, emotions, and social markers, such as ethnicity, race, and class, on science teachers’ identity development. The book aims at making a unique and deeply critical contribution to notions around science teacher identity by proposing fresh theoretical perspectives, providing empirical evidence about identity development, offering a set of implications for science teacher preparation, and recommending directions for future research.

On the Outskirts of Engineering: Learning Identity, Gender, and Power via Engineering Practice falls at the intersection of research about women in sites of technical practice and ethnographic studies of learning in communities of practice. Grounded in long-term participation on student teams completing real-world projects for industry and government clients, Outskirts provides an insider look at forms of engineering practice—the cultural production of engineer identity, of the ways that gender is made real in such sites of practice, and of power relations that emerge in response to enculturated practices that organize everyday life. Outskirts contributes to understanding cultural obduracy and the movement of some men and most women to the outskirts of engineering.