Bridge to Power: How Teachers Used Project-Based Learning to Design an Inclusive Urban STEM High School

Abstract

Using a critical and social realist framework, this study examines the experiences of teachers who used project-based learning to design an inclusive urban STEM high school. The findings illustrate how teachers used the social and material practices of project-based learning to establish an open and inclusive culture of instruction. The findings also illustrate how teachers made sense of the patterns of social and curricular integration and disintegration they experienced during implementation. An analysis of the findings suggests that a combination state-mandated testing and the absence of critical academics and administrators on the school’s curriculum design team disempowered teachers and limited their ability to design a socially critical STEM curriculum.