scholarly journals Learning to Thrive: Building Diverse Scientists’ Access to Community and Resources through the BRAINS Program

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. ar49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cara Margherio ◽  
M. Claire Horner-Devine ◽  
Sheri J. Y. Mizumori ◽  
Joyce W. Yen

BRAINS: Broadening the Representation of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience is a National Institutes of Health–funded, national program that addresses challenges to the persistence of diverse early-career neuroscientists. In doing so, BRAINS aims to advance diversity in neuroscience by increasing career advancement and retention of post-PhD, early-career neuroscientists from underrepresented groups (URGs). The comprehensive professional development program is structured to catalyze conversations specific to URGs in neuroscience and explicitly addresses factors known to impact persistence such as a weak sense of belonging to the scientific community, isolation and solo status, inequitable access to resources that impact career success, and marginalization from informal networks and mentoring relationships. While we do not yet have data on the long-term impact of the BRAINS program on participants’ career trajectory and persistence, we introduce the BRAINS program theory and report early quantitative and qualitative data on shorter-term individual impacts within the realms of career-advancing behaviors and career experiences. These early results suggest promising, positive career productivity, increased self-efficacy, stronger sense of belonging, and new perspectives on navigating careers for BRAINS participants. We finish by discussing recommendations for future professional development programs and research designed to broaden participation in the biomedical and life sciences.

10.28945/2305 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 483-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Bertrand Jones ◽  
La'Tara Osborne-Lampkin ◽  
Shawna M. Patterson ◽  
Danielle Joy Davis

Formal structures that support doctoral student socialization are limited, while formal programs for Black women doctoral students specifically are even more scarce. The purpose of this research was to examine an early career professional development program for Black women doctoral students and its influence on the mentoring relationships developed by participants. We conducted individual interviews with six Black women who participated in the Research BootCamp®, an early career professional development program, as doctoral students. Two salient features of the program were identified, including its structure and intentional focus on intersectionality. Our findings also indicate that early career professional development provided opportunities for participants to develop sustainable mentoring relationships. The formal structure of the Research BootCamp® facilitated Black women doctoral students in developing mentoring networks through continued engagement with senior scholars and peers, provided social support, created outlets for professional development, built research capacity, and contributed to Black women’s overall socialization to the academy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Pellegrino ◽  
Julie Derges Kastner ◽  
Jill Reese ◽  
Heather A. Russell

Peer mentoring and participating in professional development communities (PDCs) have been documented as supporting individuals through the transition into the teacher educator profession. However, Gallagher, Griffin, Parker, Kitchen, and Figg (2011) suggested future researchers examine the lasting impact of participating in PDCs. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the long-term impact of participating in a PDC of music teacher educators. We, as four participant-researchers and one participant, were five early-career women music teacher educators in tenure-track positions at different institutions, reflecting back on our PDC and collaborative research experiences. We used a social constructivist framework to examine how we made sense of our experiences. Data included individual interviews, paired interviews, reflective journals, and a Facebook group. Findings included: (a) feeling empowered through a sense of community and support; (b) coming to new understandings of ourselves as music teacher educators; (c) experiencing benefits and challenges of our collaborative research process; and (d) still learning/becoming. The sense of community and support, benefits from collaborating on research, and opportunities to “play” with our developing identities had lasting professional and personal implications, which helped us successfully navigate the transitions and provided an anchor during the turbulent process of becoming music teacher educators.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 145-158
Author(s):  
Kenta Nagasawa

Purpose: This paper is a thematic literature review to examine the current state of research about Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in mathematics. The main themes are students’ perception, teacher education for pre-service teacher and professional development for teachers. Research methods/ approach: Literature was collected from Eric, which is a research engine of the education field. Also, Google Scholar is used to find articles of major scholars introduced by Dr. Rich Milner, who is the instructor of this course. Findings: Students faced microaggressions in mathematics class, which discouraged them to learn mathematics. The effect of teacher education was inconsistent in terms of the awareness of culturally responsive pedagogy and lesson plans. Research of professional development mentioned that mathematics was cultural. Implications for research and practice: It is more interesting to conduct long term or follow-up research to find the teacher’s practice after a taking professional development program. Also, it is critical to expand research scope besides African American and Latino students. Finally, evidence-based research is needed to change the political situation. Keywords: culturally responsive teaching, mathematics, teacher education, professional development, student’s perception


2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142098622
Author(s):  
Hal Abeles ◽  
Lindsay Weiss-Tornatore ◽  
Bryan Powell

As popular music education programs become more common, it is essential to determine what kinds of professional development experiences that are designed to help teachers include popular music into their music education classrooms are effective—keeping in mind that the inclusion of popular music in K–12 classrooms requires a change not only in instrumentation and repertoire but also pedagogical approaches. This study examined the effects of a popular music professional development initiative on more than 600 New York City urban music teachers’ musicianship, their pedagogy, and their leadership skills throughout one school year. Results revealed increases in all three areas, most notably in teachers’ musicianship. The study also showed an increase in teachers’ positive perceptions about their music programs, specifically, their level of excitement about the state of their music program and that their music program was more effective at meeting their students’ needs than it had been previously.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8610
Author(s):  
Chung Kwan Lo ◽  
Gaowei Chen

The professional development of experienced teachers has received considerably less attention than that of novice teachers. This study focuses on four experienced secondary mathematics teachers in Shanghai, China, with two participating in a year-long professional development program (treatment teachers) and the other two received conventional knowledge-based professional development (comparison teachers). The program introduced productive classroom talk skills which can facilitate teachers’ formative assessment of student learning during class. To encourage teachers to reflect on their classroom discourse when reviewing recordings of their teaching, we used visual learning analytics with the treatment teachers and theorized the use of this technology with activity theory. After completing the program, the treatment teachers were better able to use productive talk moves to elicit student responses and to provide timely formative feedback accordingly. Specifically, the percentage of word contributions in lessons from students and the length of their responses increased noticeably. Qualitative findings suggest that the use of visual learning analytics mediated the treatment teachers and improved classroom discourse. Based on these findings and activity theory, we provide recommendations for future use of visual learning analytics to improve teachers’ classroom talk and designing professional development activities for experienced teachers.


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