Specialty Area

Program Areas

• Teaching, Learning ,and Leading with Schools and Communities
• Science Education

Courses Taught

• TLSC 231/421: Teaching Science in Elementary & Middle Schools
• TLSC 300a/b: Professional Learning Communities
• TLSC 425: Teaching Internship in Informal Education Settings
• TLSC 450: Teaching and Learning in an Area of Specialization – Secondary Science
• TLSC 451: Teaching and Learning with a Global Framework – Secondary Science
• CIEP 540: Seminar: Research in Curriculum & Instruction
• CIEP 600: Dissertation Supervision

Research Interests

• Informal science education & community partnerships
• Science teacher identity and practice
• Teacher preparation, induction and retention

Professional & Community Affiliations

• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
• Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) - Equity Committee (2017-2020)
• National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST)
• National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

Publications

• Smetana, L.K.T., & Kushki, A. (2020). Exploring career change transitions through a dialogic conceptualization of science teacher identity, Journal of Science Teacher Education, DOI: 10.1080/1046560X.2020.1802683
• Smetana, L.K., Nelson, C.B., Whitehous, P., & Koin, K. (2019). Partnering for engineering teacher education. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 4(2).
• Heineke, A. J., Smetana, L.K., & Carlson, J. (2019). A qualitative case study of inclusive teacher education: One candidate¹s evolving understanding of science teaching for emergent bilinguals. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 30(1), 80-100.
• Settlage, J., Southerland, S.A., Smetana, L. K. & Lottero-Perdue, P. (2017). Teaching science to every child: Using culture as the starting point, 3rd edition. New York: Routledge.
• Smetana, L.K., Birmingham, D., Rouleau, H., Carlson, J., & Phillips, S. (2017). Cultural institutions as partners in initial elementary science teacher preparation. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 2(2).
• Smetana, L.K., Wenner, J., Settlage, J. & McCoach, D.B. (2016). Clarifying and capturing ‘trust’ in relation to science education: Dimensions of trustworthiness and associations with equitable student achievement. Science Education, 100(1), 78–9.