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1. Work in Progress: Evaluating Teaching Self-Advocacy to Historically Minoritized Graduate Students in STEM

   Carmen M. Lilley Gregory Larnell (June 2023, 2023 Association for Engineering Education National Conference)

   Many historically minoritized graduate students, here defined as Women, Latinx and Black/African American students, in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) experience unwelcome or even hostile ecosystems or environments. Many of the social expectations are that historically minoritized graduate students in STEM should assimilate or acclimate to the cultural, where assimilation/acclimation are defined as cultural conformation vs. social acceptance of a student authentic self/identity. They may also experience forms of continuous microaggressions and isolation. The effects of chronic external stressors, such as experiencing discrimination and social isolation, on increased mental health disorders and decreased physiological health is well known [1-3]. Yet, evidence-based practices of support systems specifically for graduate students from historically marginalized communities to reduce the effects of climates of intimidation are not common. Indeed, researchers have found that such students “would benefit if colleges and universities attempted to deconstruct climates of intimidation [4]” and it has also been shown that teaching underrepresented minority students empowerment skills can improve academic success [5]. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework [6]. The underlying principle of self-advocacy is that supporting skills and knowledge development in the three areas of self-advocacy leads to a student’s long term participation and ultimately academic success in areas such as post-secondary education and STEM. The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice and programming in the GRaduate Education for Academically Talented Students (GREATS) is aligned and repeated along these three pillars. The current professional development program is in its third year of implementation and to date twenty-seven students have participated in the program. This work in progress paper outlines the evaluation of a self-advocacy program for historically marginalized graduate students in STEM at the University of Illinois Chicago is a minority serving institution as both an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). [1] S. Stansfeld and B. Candy, "Psychosocial work environment and mental health--a meta-analytic review," ed, 2006. [2] E. M. Smith, "Ethnic minorities: Life stress, social support, and mental health issues," The Counseling Psychologist, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 537-579, 1985. [3] D. M. Frost, K. Lehavot, and I. H. Meyer, "Minority stress and physical health among sexual minority individuals," Journal of behavioral medicine, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2015. [4] R. T. Palmer, D. C. Maramba, and T. E. Dancy, "A Qualitative Investigation of Factors Promoting the Retention and Persistence of Students of Color in STEM," The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 491-504, 2011. [Online]. Available: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41341155. [5] A. R. Dowden, "Implementing Self-Advocacy Training Within a Brief Psychoeducational Group to Improve the Academic Motivation of Black Adolescents," The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 118-136, 2009/04/28 2009, doi: 10.1080/01933920902791937. 

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2. Self-Advocacy Professional Programming as a Framework to Support Liberatory Outcomes of STEM PhD Graduate Education

   Lilley, Carmen (February 2024, Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD) 2024)

   Using the framework of servingness as conceptualized in research of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), measures of student’s success can be characterized using academic and non-academic outcomes (i.e. liberatory outcomes). Academic outcomes are commonly institutional quantitative measures such as GPA, time to graduation, retention, etc. However, within the framework of servingness of an institution, there are additional indicators, including identifying the experiences of students and their non-academic outcomes. A self-advocacy professional development program has been developed that focuses on non-academic outcomes of PhD graduate students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs at an Urban R1 HSI. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework. The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice and the programming is aligned to these three pillars. An overview of the project evaluation and focus group findings for the program are presented. 

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3. Re-conceptualizing the Achieving Success Everyday Group Counseling Model to Focus on the Strengths of Black Male Middle School Youth

   Steen, S.; Davis, J.; Bethea, C (July 2023, Journal of schoolbased counseling policy and evaluation)

   Mullen, P.R.; Sink, C. (Ed.)

   Scholarship focused on Black male students in school counseling has been intermittent despite being well documented in the larger field of education and other disciplines. In this article, we conducted a systematic review of the school counseling literature that focused on Black male students. We used critical race theory (CRT) to examine the programs and interventions that have been published with Black male participants in school settings within the school counseling literature and examined the role that school counselors took when supporting Black male students’ academic, social emotional, college and career identity development. We re-conceptualize the Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) group model (Steen et al., 2014) and call for others to use the ASE group model to combat racism and foster Black excellence. 

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4. Toward a justice‐centered ambitious teaching framework: Shaping ambitious science teaching to be culturally sustaining and productive in a rural context

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21917  

   Luehmann, April; Zhang, Yang; Boyle, Heather; Tulbert, Eve; Merliss, Gena; Sullivan, Kyle (November 2023, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract We find ourselves at a time when the need for transformation in science education is aligning with opportunity. Significant science education resources, namely the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) framework, need an intentional aim of centering social justice for minoritized communities and youth as well as practices to enact it. While NGSS and AST provide concrete guidelines to support deep learning, revisions are needed to explicitly promote social justice. In this study, we sought to understand how a commitment to social justice, operationalized through culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, Culturally sustaining pedagogies and our futures.The Educational Forum, 2021; 85, pp. 364–376), might shape the AST framework to promote more critical versions of teaching science for equity. Through a qualitative multi‐case study, we observed three preservice teacher teams engaged in planning, teaching, and debriefing a 6‐day summer camp in a rural community. Findings showed that teachers shaped the AST sets of practices in ways that sustained local culture and addressed equity aims: anchoring scientific study in phenomena important to community stakeholders; using legitimizing students' stories by both using them to plan the following lessons and as data for scientific argumentation; introducing local community members as scientific experts, ultimately supporting a new sense of pride and advocacy for their community; and supporting students in publicly communicating their developing scientific expertise to community stakeholders. In shaping the AST framework through culturally sustaining pedagogy, teachers made notable investments: developing local networks; learning about local geography, history, and culture; building relationships with students; adapting lessons to incorporate students' ideas; connecting with community stakeholders to build scientific collaborations; and preparing to share their work publicly with the community. Using these findings, we offer a justice‐centered ambitious science teaching (JuST) framework that can deliver the benefits of a framework of practices while also engaging in the necessarily more critical elements of equity work. 

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5. Designing for Justice: Preparing Culturally Competent Science and Mathematics Teacher Advocates for High-Need Schools

   Grillo, Monica; Kier, Meredith (April 2022, Innovations)

   In a time when the United States is faced with continued racism and social unrest, it is more important than ever to prepare teachers who can advocate for marginalized students and social justice. This article describes the evolution of a seminar course called Theory and Reality: Practicum in Math and Science Teaching in High-Need Schools within the context of a predominately White teacher-preparation program. Guided by scholars of culturally relevant education and our professional and personal journeys as equity-focused teacher educators, we sought to design experiences to prepare preservice science and mathematics teachers to teach in high-poverty or underfunded schools. Specifically, the course was intended to (1) develop an understanding of pedagogical practices and educational strategies for successful teaching in a high-need school setting, especially in mathematics and science classrooms, and (2) cultivate both cultural self-awareness and cross-cultural consciousness in one’s ability to adapt to the high-need environment in a culturally responsive way. We describe the evolutionary rationale for changes made to course assignments and readings to promote cultural competence and early advocacy skills for teacher candidates interested in teaching in schools facing poverty. We highlight preservice teachers’ reflections that evidence their early conceptualizations of teaching in a high-need school context and how assignments promoted their relationship-building and advocacy skills for marginalized students. 

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