2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Traditional physics curricula often fail to recognize students' diverse cultural and experiential backgrounds, leading to disengagement and underperformance, particularly among underrepresented groups. This study explores how secondary physics teachers collaborate in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) to integrate culture-based approaches into their physics curricula, aligning with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The PLC provided a structured environment for teachers to reflect on their practices, share insights, and incorporate local cultural knowledge and student experiences into lesson plans. Through teacher interviews, PLC meeting observations, and analysis of lesson plans and student feedback, this study identified various cultural resources that teachers integrated into their instruction. These resources enhanced the relevance of physics content for students and fostered a deeper understanding of fundamental physics concepts, particularly in topics related to forces, motion, and energy. The iterative design process within the PLC led to significant shifts in teachers' perceptions of their students' cultural assets and their ability to leverage them to support scientific inquiry. The findings demonstrate that a PLC focused on culture-based curricula development can enhance teachers’ pedagogical strategies and create more inclusive, engaging physics instruction. By aligning culturally responsive teaching practices with NGSS, teachers could develop academically rigorous and personally meaningful lessons for their students. This research highlights the importance of professional collaboration in fostering culturally relevant pedagogy and offers a model for replicating this approach in other STEM fields. Future studies could explore the long-term impacts of this PLC model on student outcomes and its applicability across diverse educational settings.