Dan Battey on Gender Equity in STEM

Issues of gender equity in science and math classrooms have grown more complex and subtle, according to Battey, while research into the professional development teachers receive to promote gender-equal classrooms has been minimal.

The research in which Battey participated synthesized information from 170 projects that included professional development on gender equity in STEM. The researchers investigated the projects’ impact on students’ engagement in inquiry, the sustainability of the projects, and the integration of the professional development into the teachers’ classrooms. They found that most projects lacked elements that research indicates are essential for promoting gender equity. Half of the projects did not address science and mathematics content, and 84 percent did not engage students in inquiry-style learning activities.

Prior to joining the mathematics education faculty in ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Battey was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning, Diversity in Mathematics Education, University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned his doctorate. Drawing on research into students’ mathematical thinking, Battey’s work focuses on interventions that engage urban elementary school teachers in opportunities to learn within and from their practice in a way that sustains and generates change.

Battey’s paper entitled “Professional Development for Teachers on Gender Equity in the Sciences: Initiating the Conversation,” appeared recently in Teachers College Record. He also just completed two chapters for the second edition of the Handbook of Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics, one on equity issues and one on classroom practices.