Teaching High School Biology Prepared Us for This: A Duoethnography Exploring Two Former High School Educators Transition into a Biology Education Research PhD Program

Discipline-based education research (DBER) is an area of research that allows scholars to explore education through their own contexts. A sub-discipline of DBER is biology education research (BER) where researchers study and apply different aspects of education in biology contexts. The purpose of this duoethnography is to elucidate the motivations and experiences of two former K-12 educators who are now graduate students in a BER PhD program. Findings from researcher discourse highlight the influence that their teaching experience had on preparing them for a BER program. These findings can be grouped as relating to either motivations or experiences. Some specific examples include the influence of teacher workload on skill development and the impact of a teacher network. Findings from this study highlight some considerations for preparation for a BER program, as well as the potential benefit of recruiting more K-12 teachers into the BER community. Ultimately, K-12 teachers should always be included in the BER conversation, and by growing the number who enter BER programs, we can better grow the impact that is to be had.