2026 North Carolina PKAL Regional Network Meeting

Keynote

The Right Thing or The Symbolic Thing 

Symbolism influences how we think and approach problem solving, so much so that it influences what we perceive as the right thing to do. In this talk, I will provide insights into how being controlled or influenced by symbolism, whether knowingly or unknowingly, might get in the way of the decisions we make implicitly or explicitly, or for better or worse.  I will provide examples from my own experiences as a teacher and learner, from events in society, and from data I've collected - highlighting connections to education today,  to how we think, and how this affects our approach to teaching and learning.

  • Dr. Catherine Quinlan

    Dr. Catherine Quinlan is the Brenda B. Brodie Endowed Chair for the School of Education at North Carolina Central University. Prior to that she was a tenured Associate Professor of Science Education at Howard University for over 8 years. While at Howard Dr. Quinlan was funded by the National Science Foundation to create culturally representative STEM curricula and products for the K-12 setting. She was PI for a US Department of Education project where she began a peer mentoring program for students in the introductory biology course. She was program consultant for the new National Geographic High School Biology Textbook which featured Black and other diverse scientist explorers for the first time in a textbook. Dr. Quinlan was on the advisory board and a curriculum fellow for LabXchange’s Data Science Driven Science Education. Prior to academia Dr. Quinlan taught high school biology and chemistry for 16 years and was an instructor for Endeavor STEM Teaching Certificate Project where she taught Life in Space: NASA ISS and Astrobiology to teachers around the United States. She graduated from Teachers College Columbia University with her doctorate in Science Education. Among her major accomplishments are her recently published book on Black Representation in the Science Curriculum, the instrument she created to measure self-efficacy indicators for STEM performance, the science standards she created which reflect her curricular implementations, and her recently launched podcast, Black Representation in the Curriculum: Conversations on Teaching, Culture, Equity, and Belonging.