I’m Tess—a science educator & teacher educator.

My research questions how the proliferation of education technology in K-12 classrooms has altered the nature of teachers’ instructional and professional practice. On one end, I investigate how teachers critically engage with digital platforms whose designs attempt to automate and surveil the relational work they do with students. Conversely, I also seek to highlight the features of technologies that expand teachers’ pedagogical possibilities and add new layers of participation in classroom discourse.

I use qualitative research methods borrowed from scholars of media studies and science and technology studies to describe the modern classroom condition. My dissertation project illustrated how, contrary to popular narratives of technology ushering in ease and efficiency, teachers experience digital platforms as adding complicated layers of administrative work to their plates. In my postdoctoral research, I am expanding this work to understand how digital platforms sold by unaccountable private companies have come to serve as intermediaries in how students, teachers, parents, and administrators build relationships in school communities.

As a former biology teacher and a current science teacher educator, both my teaching and research aim to support teachers’ development of teaching practices that align with the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards. Throughout my teaching and writing, I aim to elevate teachers’ voices as they work collectively towards ambitious visions of instruction and work against digital systems that constrain the beauty and meaning of teaching young people.