About the SHELLS Conference
This National Science Foundation supported project involves a national Conference with and accompanying Cyber-Conference that address pre-service K-12 teachers of science. These are teachers who will serve a rapidly growing population of Hispanic students, most of whom are new Mexican and first generation Mexican Americans in the southeastern states (including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina).
K-12 teachers of science in the southeast often are not well prepared to work with an influx of Spanish speaking students into a region with little prior contact with this cultural/language group. The region typically has high African American populations, particularly in rural and small town areas where the growth in new Hispanic populations has strongly impacted. Because this change is recent, southeastern teachers have few relevant resources and little professional training.
While the project addresses the needs of southeastern states, it has potential for informing other regions in this country with similar challenges.
The SHELLS Conference Project involves:
- a unique forum for the discussion of research applicable to the pre-service education of teachers of science who will work with new, mostly Mexican and first generation, Hispanic students in the southeast
- delineation of major priorities and critical research areas, methodological concerns, and implementation of research needed on K-12 pre-service teacher education in the southeast aimed at facilitating science instruction of new, mostly Mexican and first generation, Hispanic students
- a research agenda and an action plan describing future development of the research agenda and identifying commitments of researchers, and dissemination of the priorities, research agenda, and action plan regionally to every southeastern teacher education institution
- national dissemination of conference proceedings via multiple venues and continuation of dialog on a post-conference website to support a network of interested participants.
is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant NSF 9729439)