Maria Wallace
University of Southern Mississippi, Education, Faculty Member
- Poststructuralist Feminist Theory, Science teacher education, DELEUZE-FOUCAULT, Foucault and education, Curriculum Theory, Nature of Science, and 10 moreTeacher Education, Teacher Preparation, Induction, and Mentoring, Teacher Preparation, Elementary Science Teacher Education, Science Education, Currere, Gilles Deleuze, Teacher Subjectivity and Identity, Post-Qualitative Research, and Subjectivityedit
- Maria is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education at the University of Southern Mississippi. Upon earning a Ph.D. in ... moreMaria is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education at the University of Southern Mississippi. Upon earning a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with specializations in Curriculum Theory, Science Education, and a graduate minor in Women's & Gender Studies from Louisiana State University, Maria's work aims to deterritorialize beginning (science) teachers’ subjectivities and practice. Drawing on conventional qualitative research methods and post-qualitative modes of inquiry, Maria’s research (re)imagines ways beginning science teachers are 'known,' named, and re/produced.
Dissertation Title:
"Deterritorializing Dichotomies in Teacher Induction: A (Post)Ethnographic Study of Un/Becoming an Elementary Science Teacher"
Website: www.mariafgwallace.weebly.comedit
Over the past decade, neoliberal practices for ensuring teacher effectiveness have shaped the landscape of education. In the midst of policy mandates for highly effective teachers, a biopolitical movement also undergirds the desire for a... more
Over the past decade, neoliberal practices for ensuring teacher effectiveness have shaped the landscape of education. In the midst of policy mandates for highly effective teachers, a biopolitical movement also undergirds the desire for a particular kind of ideal classroom. Grounded in traditions of scientism, beginning science teachers and their practices are implicitly and explicitly subjected to biopolitical control. The central question of this research includes: How does the desire to standardized science teacher practice through regular government-mandated evaluation of science teacher teachers produce biopolitical subjects? Using post-qualitative inquiry, this study examines ethnographic moments with one beginning science teacher alongside one teacher evaluation rubric used for formal teacher evaluation to explore ontological considerations for the implicated subjects. By illuminating the intra-active relationship between micro- and macro-discourses within one high school science classroom, the depths to which biopower functions is made visible. The paper concludes by calling science teacher educators and those responsible for their induction to examine the multifaceted ethical dilemmas inherently shaping their work with beginning science teachers.
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Over the years neoliberal ideology and discourse have become intricately connected to making science people. Science educators work within a complicated paradox where they are obligated to meet neoliberal demands that reinscribe dominant,... more
Over the years neoliberal ideology and discourse have become intricately connected to making science people. Science educators work within a complicated paradox where they are obligated to meet neoliberal demands that reinscribe dominant, hegemonic assumptions for producing a scientific workforce. Whether it is the discourse of school science, processes of being a scientist, or definitions of science particular subjects are made intelligible as others are made unintelligible. This paper resides within the messy entanglements of feminist poststructural and new materialist perspectives to provoke spaces where science educators might enact ethicopolitical hesitations. By turning to and living in theory, the un/making of certain kinds of science people reveals material effects and affects. Practicing ethicopolitical hesitations prompt science educators to consider beginning their work from ontological assumptions that begin with abundance rather than lack.
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Nature, as a creative ontology, and the ethico-political possibilities inherent within have been seemingly occluded in the field of science education. By Thinking with Nature (TwN), we return to the ontological dimensions of practice and... more
Nature, as a creative ontology, and the ethico-political possibilities inherent within have been seemingly occluded in the field of science education. By Thinking with Nature (TwN), we return to the ontological dimensions of practice and research methodology in science education. Drawing on new material feminisms, educators are invited to follow the contours of minor concepts with/in Nature. Thinking with Gilles Deleuze and Karen Barad, our theoretical tinkering follows the contours of minority within Nature, as opposed to the passive observation of brute matter, to illuminate concepts of possibility hidden in plain sight: holobionts and lightning. By following Nature’s inherent queerness, becoming-minor, TwN provokes an enactment of ethico-political response-ability in research on science education. Above all else, this paper should be read, not as a prescription, but a provocation for TwN and following the contours of minor(ity) concepts.
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In this article, we, a multivocal-thinking-assemblage, trouble what we feel is the dogmatic image of thought in science education. Beginning with Lars Bang's (2017) dramatic and disruptive imagery of the Ouroboros as a means to... more
In this article, we, a multivocal-thinking-assemblage, trouble what we feel is the dogmatic image of thought in science education. Beginning with Lars Bang's (2017) dramatic and disruptive imagery of the Ouroboros as a means to challenge scientific literacy we explore the importance of dreams, thinking with both virtual and actual entities, and immanent thinking to science education scholarship. Dreaming as movement away from a dogmatic image of thought takes the authors in multiple directions as they attempt to open Deleuzian horizons of difference, immanence, and self-exploration.
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Recognizing cognitive imperialism in the emerging postqualitative regime, we propose a hesitation, a perturbation to think the other-than-ness of the west. Asserting the postqualitative regime as west reinforces hegemonic epistemological... more
Recognizing cognitive imperialism in the emerging postqualitative regime, we propose a hesitation, a perturbation to think the other-than-ness of the west. Asserting the postqualitative regime as west reinforces hegemonic epistemological violence; we look to the East and Africa – progenitors of the west-termed postqualitative regime and seek to privilege the onto–epistemologies from which these concepts were culturally (mis)appropriated. More specifically, we explore the southern African philosophy of Ubuntu and Taoism from the East to transgress west. These oft-western denigrated indigenous philosophical concepts embody the postqualitative conceptual (mis)appropriations of entanglement, the inseparability of ontology and epistemology (onto–epistemology), and an ontological positionality of immanence – interpenetration – impermanence. Re-conceptualizing the postqualitative regime, we offer a turn to non-western indigenous ontologies illuminating African and Eastern philosophies pregnant with multiple possibilities for living–thinking–being ourselves, postqualitative research, and the world anew.
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This special issue of The Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education offers a series of articles that take seriously the notion that methodology is not only a legitimate object of study for critical approaches to... more
This special issue of The Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education offers a series of articles that take seriously the notion that methodology is not only a legitimate object of study for critical approaches to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, but also an important location to labour in working towards both ecological and social justice to-come. Within this editorial introduction, we briefly frame why disrupting and displacing methodologies in STEM education matters. Next, we sketch out the guiding metaphor that informs the naming of this special issue: tinkering with theory. Lastly, we give a short overview of the papers within this special issue.
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The articles presented in this special issue each take up lines of posthuman, complex, materialist thinking, answering questions of “how might we live,” “how might we educate,” and “how might we research education/teaching” with... more
The articles presented in this special issue each take up lines of
posthuman, complex, materialist thinking, answering questions of “how
might we live,” “how might we educate,” and “how might we research
education/teaching” with affirmative, monistic, immanent, multiplistic
theories of difference. These serve as points of departure from normative
(humanistic) ways of thinking about teacher education, teaching, and
research on teaching. We envision the theoretical scope of the articles
in this issue as spanning a continuum, ranging from modes of thought
that trouble and dismantle normative and circulatory social categories to
conceptual and methodological frameworks that reinterpret the human
condition itself. The broad and diverse conceptual and methodological
approaches in this collection are “put to work” as guiding frameworks
regarding a wide range of equity and social justice issues relevant to
education and teacher education.
posthuman, complex, materialist thinking, answering questions of “how
might we live,” “how might we educate,” and “how might we research
education/teaching” with affirmative, monistic, immanent, multiplistic
theories of difference. These serve as points of departure from normative
(humanistic) ways of thinking about teacher education, teaching, and
research on teaching. We envision the theoretical scope of the articles
in this issue as spanning a continuum, ranging from modes of thought
that trouble and dismantle normative and circulatory social categories to
conceptual and methodological frameworks that reinterpret the human
condition itself. The broad and diverse conceptual and methodological
approaches in this collection are “put to work” as guiding frameworks
regarding a wide range of equity and social justice issues relevant to
education and teacher education.
Research Interests:
Undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is in the midst of a paradigm shift. Accreditation mandates and job market expectations underpin the need for more learner-centered approaches to... more
Undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is in the midst of a paradigm shift. Accreditation mandates and job market expectations underpin the need for more learner-centered approaches to instruction. In the engineering field, problem- and project-based learning, both of which are often referred to as PBL, are the dominant instructional models called for by accreditation agencies. The aim of this qualitative case study is to analyze and capture a holistic perspective of PBL course design and its implementation
in two communication-intensive undergraduate engineering
courses. Findings include three themes: (a) definitions of PBL are multifaceted and tentative, (b) communication-intensive course design supports PBL enactment, and (c) authentic PBL maintains
the elements of Gold Standard PBL (Larmer, Mergendoller, & Boss, 2015). Both cases are uniquely situated within a university-wide initiative for communication- intensive curricula resulting in increased instructional support for successful implementation of PBL in undergraduate STEM courses. The implications of this study provide examples of communication- intensive undergraduate PBL enactment and complicate current definitions of PBL.
in two communication-intensive undergraduate engineering
courses. Findings include three themes: (a) definitions of PBL are multifaceted and tentative, (b) communication-intensive course design supports PBL enactment, and (c) authentic PBL maintains
the elements of Gold Standard PBL (Larmer, Mergendoller, & Boss, 2015). Both cases are uniquely situated within a university-wide initiative for communication- intensive curricula resulting in increased instructional support for successful implementation of PBL in undergraduate STEM courses. The implications of this study provide examples of communication- intensive undergraduate PBL enactment and complicate current definitions of PBL.
Research Interests:
In today’s technological age, visions for technology integration in the classroom continue to be explored and examined. Digital game-based learning is one way to purposefully integrate technology while maintaining a focus on learning... more
In today’s technological age, visions for technology integration in the classroom continue to be explored and examined. Digital game-based learning is one way to purposefully integrate technology while maintaining a focus on learning objectives. This case study sought to understand agriscience teachers’ experiences implementing digital game-based learning in an introductory animal science course. From interviews with agriscience teachers on their experiences with the game, three themes emerged: (1) the constraints of inadequate and inappropriate technologies, and time to game implementation; (2) the shift in teacher and student roles necessitated by implementing the game; and (3) the inherent competitive nature of learning through the game. Based on these findings, we recommend that pre-service and in-service professional development opportunities be developed for teachers to learn how to implement digital game-based learning effectively. Additionally, with the potential for simulations that address cross-cutting concepts in the next generation science standards, digital game-based learning should be explored in various science teaching and learning contexts.
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Lived experiences are multiple. Utilizing deleuzoguattarian concepts, the chapter examines the double articulation of becoming a researcher of science teacher induction and science teacher educator to critically examine the... more
Lived experiences are multiple. Utilizing deleuzoguattarian concepts, the chapter examines the double articulation of becoming a researcher of science teacher induction and science teacher educator to critically examine the taken-for-granted norms of what it means ‘know’ the novice science teacher. The first articulation depicts four multiplicitous moments of sedimentation that occurred throughout the author’s doctoral education. The second articulation examines how those lived moments fold and re-fold into research on science teacher induction. Drawing heavily on Deleuze and Guattari, the author re-conceptualizes science teacher induction from conventional programs of support, socialization, and limited, predictable blocks of time to a process of signification referred to as facialization.
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The process of becoming a science teacher and teacher educator is inherently embedded in the ruins of American culture. Through a feminist post-structural lens, I re-examine the ways structures and discourse implicitly and explicitly... more
The process of becoming a science teacher and teacher educator is inherently embedded in the ruins of American culture. Through a feminist post-structural lens, I re-examine the ways structures and discourse implicitly and explicitly shape my work and subjectivity as a becoming-science teacher educator. Utilizing a traditional American garage sale as an overarching metaphor I engage three items for sale: (a) The Scientific Method as Almighty, (b) Tradition or Standardization, and (c) Strategic Efforts to De-gender STEM. Each item demonstrates the complicated conversations of science teacher preparation; yet, further constitutes normative perceptions of what it means to know, do, and teach science. This chapter provides three points of entry for science teacher educator preparation: (1) shift from notions of identity to onto-epistemological becoming; (2) use critical autobiographical inquiry; and (3) examine the scientism of education. Through my excavation, I reconcile the treasure I seek is found in the rummage.
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Across diverse educational spaces there are increasing calls to engage in practices of disruptive methodological de/sign to differ and defer that which design comes to signify: design as pre-existing, design as separate or separable... more
Across diverse educational spaces there are increasing calls to engage in practices of disruptive methodological de/sign to differ and defer that which design comes to signify: design as pre-existing, design as separate or separable from other aspects of research, and design as a means to achieve and justify the ends. These approaches critically engage methodological processes to disrupt and displace restrictive norms of dominance which linger and lurk with/in educational research, which left unchecked (re)articulate forms of oppressive power. The question we pose in this call for papers is: What would it mean to engage in the work of de/signing research which critically disrupts and displaces methodologies in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM) education for eco-social justice?
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Un/becoming an elementary science teacher is a dynamic phenomenon, yet the process is often intentionally limited to several taken-for-granted assumptions in research on science teacher induction. Inherent to research on beginning science... more
Un/becoming an elementary science teacher is a dynamic phenomenon, yet the process is often intentionally limited to several taken-for-granted assumptions in research on science teacher induction. Inherent to research on beginning science teacher induction is also the construction of certain truths beginning science teachers, science teacher educators, and researchers think, feel, and live. This study complicates prevailing truths shaping notions of beginner, novice, induction, and traditions of inquiry as an ethicopolitical commitment to those implicated. In doing so, this study illuminates more expansive ways science teacher educators and those studying induction might study and understand the experiences of beginning science teachers from both humanist and post-humanist ontological paradigms. To provide an intimate, in-depth, and multidimensional analysis of elementary science teacher induction experiences, feminist post-structural theory was employed throughout the study. This perspective further informed the post-foundational ethnographic practices shaping the structure of the study as an always-already emergent process. Taking form as a (post)ethnographic inquiry, the study specifically examined the induction experiences of two beginning elementary science teachers alongside three ontological dichotomies in research shaping science teacher induction: (a) the beginning science teacher subject; (b) the concept of induction; and (c) the mode of inquiry. Employing both conventional humanist qualitative methods and post-qualitative inquiry, this study reveals the multifaceted ways in which beginning elementary science teacher subjectivity, research assumptions, and definitions framing the very notion of elementary science teacher induction intra-act. Offering a series of provocations as lines of flight, researchers of science teacher induction and science teacher educators might begin to re-conceptualize ways beginning science teachers un/become known and get re/produced.