Identity and biography as mediators of science and mathematics faculty’s involvement in K-12 service Allison Skerrett Æ Hannah Sevian Received: 23 April 2009 / Accepted: 13 August 2009 / Published online: 2 September 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract This article explores aspects of science and mathematics faculty identities and biographies that mediated their involvement in K-12 service. Faculty expressed five motivations for participating in K-12 service—advancing their research agenda, advocat- ing environmental consciousness, desiring to be involved in their children’s schools, aspiring to improve their pedagogical practices and promoting equity and social justice. Keywords Agency Á College faculty Á Higher education Á Identity Á Professional development Á Social justice This article examines the ways in which science and mathematics faculty perceived that aspects of their identities and biographies mediated their participation in K-12 content-area related service in general and urban K-12 service in particular. 1 Universities’ collabora- tions with K-12 schools typically occur with faculty in schools of education (Carr 2002). There are now, however, significant calls for universities to address the historically limited involvement of science and mathematics university departments in sustained and orga- nized, content-focused involvement in K-12 schools. Accompanying these appeals is an increase in strategic efforts and funding by organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote the participation of higher education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) faculty in K-12 science and math curriculum and A. Skerrett (&) Department of Curriculum & Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, D5700, Austin, TX, USA e-mail: askerrett@mail.utexas.edu H. Sevian Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, MA, USA e-mail: hannah.sevian@umb.edu H. Sevian Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Boston, MA, USA 1 For the US government’s definition of urban schools, see http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/web/96184ex.asp. 123 Cult Stud of Sci Educ (2010) 5:743–766 DOI 10.1007/s11422-009-9235-0