More Like this

1. Fam Jam STEM & Bridging Practices: Fostering Rightful Familial Presence in Middle School STEM

   Calabrese_Barton, Angela; Sedawi, Wisam (April 2024, American Education Research Association)

   This study investigates instructional practices that support rightful familial presence in STEM as a mechanism to address the continued racial/class gap in STEM achievement for historically marginalized students. We define rightful familial presence as a form of authentic family engagement that 1) legitimizes families’ community cultural capital, and 2) fosters capital movement between families and schools, especially when these forms of capital have historically been marginalized within STEM learning. We ask: What practices grounded in research-practice-partnerships support rightful familial presence, and how do these practices facilitate capital movement between families and schools for STEM teaching and learning? 

   more » « less
2. Embodying STEM: Learning at the intersection of Dance & STEM

   Solomon, F. (July 2021, International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   de Vries, E. (Ed.)

   This symposium addresses dance as a site for STEM learning. We present papers from five research projects that each sought to engage youth in embodied STEM learning using dance, exploring the power of creative embodied experiences and the body’s potential as an expressive tool and resource for learning. We show how dance activities expanded access to STEM and supported sense-making; how dancer and dance-making practices were leveraged to support computational thinking, modeling, and inquiry; and how moving bodies in creative ways helped to generate new insights by allowing for new perspectives. Across our work, we seek to understand the multiple, rich learning opportunities that emerge from working across the arts and sciences, dance and STEM. Together our research shows that attending to opportunities for STEM engagement and learning through dance practices can broaden access to learning and engagement in STEM for all. 

   more » « less
3. Culturally Sustaining STEM Learning in the Gullah Community

   Ciphrah, Regina; Boyd, Fenice; Ellis, Jamelle (January 2022, National Science Foundation (NSF) STEM for All Video Showcase)

   Culture plays a significant role in students’ learning and understanding. Teaching and learning are most effective when teachers make curricula relevant to students’ cultural, linguistic and experiential backgrounds, and when they take time to know and understand their students and the community they serve. The Culturally Sustaining STEM (CS-STEM) Institute is a feasibility study designed to support professional learning of in-service and preservice teachers in community-based settings. Funded by NSF AISL and ITEST programs, the study is comprised of three goals: supporting preservice and in-service teachers’ practices of culturally-sustaining STEM pedagogy, enhancing pre-adolescent learners’ knowledge of historical and current STEM practices in Gullah Geechee culture, inviting dialogue that critique and challenge perceptions of who participates in STEM agency and how through a Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) model. A primary component of the study was a pilot summer 2021 STEM camp for fifth and sixth grade students in Georgetown, SC, located within the geographical footprint of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. The multi-PI team utilizes constant comparative analytic methods to analyze transcripts from observations and interviews, as well as the educators’ products to measure how the educators understand and apply culturally sustaining pedagogies (e.g., lesson plans). They also measure how the youth convey their understandings of culturally-embedded scientific content and practices by using constant comparative and multimodal analysis of transcripts from interviews and observations, as well as youth-generated artifacts. This research addresses why CS-STEM is important, development and enactment of CS-STEM curriculum, and how CS-STEM increases STEM literacy. 

   more » « less
4. Designing STEM Classes for Hawaiian Youth’s Rightful Presence.

   Tofel-Grehl, Colby (September 2022, International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   This paper shares the process of designing a summer school science and technology class focused on youth advocacy and the development of youth rightful presence (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2019) for students in Hawaii. We examine students’ changing perspectives and connections to STEM through their engagement in projects that center their own geography and life experiences. Findings indicate that youth sense of agency and autonomy were greatly improved by engaging in a space where science and technology were tools serving their own goals of protecting the island from further development and tourist abuse. 

   more » « less
5. STEM validation among underrepresented students: Leveraging insights from a STEM diversity program to broaden participation.

   https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000300  

   Burt, Brian A.; Stone, Blayne D.; Motshubi, Rudisang; Baber, Lorenzo D. (February 2023, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education)

   Despite significant efforts to broaden participation in postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, students from historically minoritized populations continue to face systemic barriers related to access, departmental climate, and institutional practices. Previous research suggests that campus-level STEM diversity programs often serve as a valuable resource for persistence and completion among students from underrepresented populations. However, more knowledge is needed to better understand how students experience STEM diversity programs and identify with their specific practices and activities, how those practices and activities shape students’ experiences, and how the practices, activities, and participation influence how students view themselves as members of the STEM community. Increases in the number of underrepresented students completing STEM degrees would result in new innovations to address world problems, more varied representations of scientists, and more individuals who could mentor future generations of learners. This study of 20 underrepresented students, all of whom participated in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, describes the programmatic influences of LSAMP that support students’ successful progress within STEM disciplines. Data reveal that: (a) students entered the LSAMP program with self-defined strengths; (b) the LSAMP program provided formal academic support; and (c) students experienced evolving forms of scientific and identity development. This study centers students’ voices to inform educational practices, policies, and future research focused on the persistent need to broaden participation in STEM careers. 

   more » « less