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Faculty Ayça Fackler

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Ayça Fackler 

Assistant Professor

Ayça Fackler

Phone

(352) 294-2228

Email

aycafackler@ufl.edu

Address

P.O. Box 117048
Gainesville, FL 32611

Website

Project SEMILLAS
Flash Floods Through Youth Voices
Hurricanes Through Youth Voices

About

Ayça Fackler studies how to expand opportunities for multilingual students to engage in disciplinary science practices to make sense of complex scientific issues. She uses sociocultural, asset-oriented theoretical and analytical lenses to examine how science teachers attend to students’ backgrounds, experiences, and language resources while designing and implementing science practices. Drawing on placemaking and futures-thinking pedagogies, Ayça’s most recent project partners with science, social studies, and ESOL/TESOL teachers in rural schools to foster climate and science literacy by engaging youth in investigations of climate-related challenges affecting communities across the Gulf region.

Affiliations

  • School of Teaching and Learning

Research Interests

Curriculum Development, Diverse Learners, Multilingual Learners, Qualitative Research, Science Education, Science Teacher Education and Professional Development, Sociocultural Perspectives

Education

  • Ph.D., Science Education, 2023, University of Georgia
  • M.A., Science Education, 2018, University of Georgia
  • M.A., Measurement and Evaluation in Education, 2015, Ankara University
  • Joint B.S. & M.Ed., Biology Education, 2012, Gazi University

Activities and Honors

  • Nentwig Faculty Excellence Award, University of Missouri, 2025
  • Early Career Research Fellowship–Education Track, NASEM, 2024
  • SEC Visiting Faculty Travel Grant, University of Missouri, 2024
  • Early-Career Institute Scholar, NARST, 2024
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Georgia, 2023
  • Macagnoni Qualitative Research Award, University of Georgia, 2023
  • Sandra K. Abell Fellowship, NARST, 2021
  • Jhumki Basu Fellowship, NARST, 2021
  • Saeeda Peermahomed Award, University of Georgia, 2021
  • Graduate Education Advancement Board Fellowship, University of Georgia, 2019

Selected Grants

Promoting an Artificial Intelligence-Researcher-Teacher Network for Epistemic Practices in Science Education (PARTNERS)

Role
  • Co-PI
Funding Agency
  • National Science Foundation
Award Amount
  • $750,000

Project SEMILLAS

Role
  • PI
Funding Agency
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine–Gulf Research Program
Award Amount
  • $427, 478
Project Information

Our Water Our Future

Role
  • PI
Funding Agency
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine–Gulf Research Program
Award Amount
  • $76,000

Supporting Teachers of Refugee-Background Youth in Rural Communities Through Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Practices

Role
  • Co-PI
Funding Agency
  • University of Missouri, Rural Education Initiative
Award Amount
  • $50,000

Selected Publications

Articles

  • Fackler, A. K. (2026). Extending the practice of modeling into meaning-making with science texts. Journal of Science Teacher Education. [Online first]. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2026.2719021
  • Fackler, A. K., Good, M., & Champagne, A. (2026). From storms to stories: An interdisciplinary placemaking approach to climate change education for young science learners. Science and Children, 63(2), 32-40. https://doi.org/10.1080/00368148.2026.2620816
  • Fackler, A. K., & Harman, R. M. (2025). Empowering elementary preservice science teachers: Harnessing diverse language resources in the practice of modeling. Science Education, 109(3), 796-815. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.21934
  • Fackler, A. K., & Wright, G. W. (2025). TRANSforming language use in science education through trans and queer studies. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 62(2), 610-619. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21981
  • Reigh, E. V., Adah Miller, E., Fackler, A. K., & Simani, M. C. (2024). “It’s just a hot mess”: Supporting teacher praxis to challenge barriers for multilingual learners. Science Education, 109(4), 1022-1047. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21917
  • Fackler, A. K. (2024). “I thought that they were very cut and dry”: Preservice elementary science teachers learning about and learning with models and modeling. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 36(2), 180-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2024.2380549