About me
My research focuses on bridging theory and practice for Black representation in the science curriculum.
Dr. Catherine Quinlan, Ed.D.
Associate Professor of Science Education
Howard University
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Profile at Howard University
Brief Biography
Dr. Catherine Quinlan is Associate Professor of Science Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Howard University. She graduated from Teachers College Columbia University with her doctorate in Science Education. Prior to coming to Howard University, Dr. Quinlan taught high school biology and chemistry for sixteen years and was an instructor for Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Project where she taught Life in Space: NASA ISS and Astrobiology to teachers around the United States. Currently, she prepares Howard undergraduate and graduate students in science education methods and education foundations.
Dr. Quinlan was funded by the National Science Foundation to create culturally representative STEM curricula and products for the K-12 setting. Dr. Quinlan is committed to creating practical curriculum products that impact the classroom, along with her research publications that highlight the cognitive resources of Black students.
Her recent publication, Creating an Instrument to Measure Social and Cultural Self-efficacy Indicators for Persistence of HBCU Undergraduates in STEM capitalizes on her expertise in both science and education as well as captures her use of interdisciplinary approaches, such as applied cognitive approaches to understand how students learn and perform in science. Her research publication “Emergent Themes and Pragmatic Research Methods for Meaningful Cultural Representation of Blacks in Multimedia Products for the Science Classroom” marks the beginning of her contributions to the research literature on research methodologies for Black representation in the STEM curricula.
Research interests
Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary researcher; Cultural representation in STEM education curriculum and products; self-efficacy indicators for persistence; using identity as an approach for understanding issues of culture; effective use of instructional technology methods in the classroom. Use of applied cognitive approaches; schema theory; argumentation in science; science education pedagogy.
Book series
She recently launched her chapter book series for early readers, Keystone Passage, which uses interdisciplinary approaches to create Black representation. The first book of this series, To Africa and Back makes use of her understandings from prior research on African Rock Art and her second book Day and Night on the Space Station takes advantage of her understandings of the microgravity environment and experiments done on the International Space Station.
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Black Representation in the Science Curriculum
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SEE RESEARCH GATE FOR OTHER WORK
NSF Final Outcomes Report: Using the Lived Experiences and Narratives of Black Heritage and African American Gullah/Geechee to Learn Science Concepts
Summary:
This resource is a public report that provides final outcomes from the NSF funded project award # 1928832. The resources included in this report are outcomes from the catalyst project titled: Creating and Evaluating a Culturally Representative STEM Curriculum Supported by Next Generation Science Standards. Others will be shared in this research lab space over time.
Quinlan, C. L. (2023). NSF Final Outcomes Report: Using the Lived Experiences and Narratives of Black Heritage and African American Gullah/Geechee to Learn Science Concepts. BRISCLAB, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/X8ZN-2Q79
Emergent themes and pragmatic research methods for meaningful cultural representation of Blacks in multimedia products for the science classroom. International Journal of Science Education
This research explores how the lived experiences and narratives of African American Gullah Geechee of the southern Coasts of the United States might be integrated into the science curriculum using video clips. This research also investigates the creation of a culturally representative animation to explicate considerations that were made when using the social, cultural, and historical underpinnings of Blacks in America. The research highlights the research methodologies and the meaning of representation, that have important implications for meaningful Black cultural representation in the science curriculum.
Creating an instrument to measure social and cultural self-efficacy indicators for persistence of HBCU undergraduates in STEM
This study provides insights into self-efficacy indicators at an institution that was specifically created to consider the social, cultural, and historical implications for educating Blacks in STEM. One hundred sixty-four undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory biology course at an Historically Black College and University completed a questionnaire. The survey addressed the hypothesized factors—expectancy, self-efficacy, familial self-efficacy, cognitive self-efficacy, and commitment. The results highlight the importance of science identity and familial sources of vicarious experiences as important indicators of persistence and performance in STEM. The importance of social and cultural factors for Black students’ persistence in STEM is underscored.
Use of schema theory and multimedia technology to explore preservice students’ cognitive resources during an Earth science activity
This study explored the dialogic arguments and conversations of five female African American preservice graduate elementary education students enrolled in a science methods course. Students carried out a Crime Scene Investigation Toolkit in Earth science that was created by the New York Hall of Science. Schema theory and Marshall’s (1995) knowledge types provide an explanatory framework to explore and explain participants’ dialogue. The use of schema theory as a framework shed light on participants’ dialogues and was important in understanding how to integrate multimedia technology meaningfully into the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards.
RESEARCHGATE
A list of my publications/additional works can be found on my Howard University Profile or ResearchGate
Quinlan, C.L. (2020). Using historical and cultural narratives of African Americans to create culturally representative biology curriculum. National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), Professional Development Conference, Virtual.
This presentation was created for the 2020 NABT Professional Development Conference (Online). This research is part of a larger funded NSF project. Both the research methods and the biology curriculum design and products use pragmatic approaches that merges theory and practice. This presentation addresses concepts related to Botany, Ecology, Environmental Science, and Sustainability with connections to Life Science and Earth Science Disciplinary Core Ideas of NGSS.
Quinlan, Catherine L. Exploring the Use of Pragmatism in Research Methodology 2021 ASTE International Virtual Conference. Friday January 15, 2021
This presentation explores the use of pragmatic research approaches to create a culturally representative STEM curriculum. This is part of a research project funded by NSF to create a culturally representative STEM curriculum using the lived experiences and narratives of African American Gullah Geechee peoples. The findings have implications for creating practical products for classroom use.
Quinlan, C.L. (September 2020). Cultural Inclusion and Representation in Formal and Informal Settings. Webinar with invited guests. Howard University Zoom.
This is the second dissemination webinar that I launched to share my NSF project and work on cultural representation.
ALL OF THESE VIDEO PRESENTATIONS WILL BE REPOSTED AND MADE PERMANENTLY AVAILABLE SOON.
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SITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Invited Presentation Keynote Speaker (April 2021). Going Beyond Ceremony: Creating Educative STEM Materials That Use and Evoke African American Capital. Administrative Sponsored Session: Continental and Diasporic Africa in Science Education (CADASE) RIG: The National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) International Conference. Virtual
Invited Talk: I was keynote speaker for CADASE RIG at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. This presentation contains works and is still being developed. However, the presentation can be viewed here.