| dc.description.abstract | Stacked within the Frontier Strip, 70,000 square miles of land constitutes the 46th state of the Union, Oklahoma. The state is known for its agriculture, energy, and aerospace industries, as well as rich cultural history and diverse ecology, geology, and geography. Unfortunately, the state is also known for a perceived lack of commitment to education, as well as to scientific literacy and advancement. Oklahoma consistently ranks among the bottom for American states’ categories in education. We are 48th in per-pupil spending in public schools; and 70% of Oklahoma schools are Title I, receiving federal financial assistance through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for children from low-income families. This dissertation is about public school teachers and their challenges in teaching science in the Bible Belt. It encompasses multimodal research activities on science education in Oklahoma, including ethnographic field research, surveys, interviews, and scholarly review. The majority of data were collected over the course of 24 months in 2015 and 2016 with Oklahoma teachers and students. Data were collected primarily through teacher workshop and K-12 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) programs designed by the author and funded through various public and private grants. The goal of this dissertation is to present a model for teaching called the Science Empowerment model, as well as to illustrate why the model is an ideal approach to science education. | en_US |
