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Abstract We propose a conceptual framework for STEM education that is centered around justice for minoritized groups. Justice‐centered STEM education engages all students in multiple STEM subjects, including data science and computer science, to explain and design solutions to societal challenges disproportionately impacting minoritized groups. We articulate the affordances of justice‐centered STEM education for one minoritized student group that has been traditionally denied meaningful STEM learning: multilingual learners (MLs). Justice‐centered STEM education with MLs leverages the assets they bring to STEM learning, including their transnational experiences and knowledge as well as their rich repertoire of meaning‐making resources. In this position paper, we propose our conceptual framework to chart a new research agenda on justice‐centered STEM education to address societal challenges with all students, especially MLs. Our conceptual framework incorporates four interrelated components by leveraging the convergence of multiple STEM disciplines to promote justice‐centered STEM education with MLs: (a) societal challenges in science education, (b) justice‐centered data science education, (c) justice‐centered computer science education, and (d) justice‐centered engineering education. The article illustrates our conceptual framework using the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic, which has presented an unprecedented societal challenge but also an unprecedented opportunity to cultivate MLs' assets toward promoting justice in STEM education. Finally, we describe how our conceptual framework establishes the foundation for a new research agenda that addresses increasingly complex, prevalent, and intractable societal challenges disproportionately impacting minoritized groups. We also consider broader issues pertinent to our conceptual framework, including the social and emotional impacts of societal challenges; the growth of science denial and misinformation; and factors associated with politics, ideology, and religion. Justice‐centered STEM education contributes to solving societal challenges that K‐12 students currently face while preparing them to shape a more just society.
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This content will become publicly available on July 14, 2026
Justice-Centered Computing Curriculum Design in Informal Learning
Some computing education researchers have shifted focus from broadening participation to justice-centered computing education (JCCE). JCCE teaches computing through its social-political implications, empowering students to create more just futures. While prior research theorizes and explores its classroom application, we know little about the collaborative processes instructors use to design and adapt curricula for such learning. We engaged in a 3-month curriculum co-design project as part of a research-practice partnership between a CS education researcher and an after-school STEAM instructor. Through duo-ethnography, we analyzed our curriculum design process. We highlight key emerging challenges and how we resolved them through the design process. Our findings focus on balancing students' technical proficiency with justice-centered pedagogy, showing that justice-centered curriculum design requires educators' ongoing content learning, reflection on positionality, and adaptability to students' needs, including those with disabilities. These findings bridge the theoretical discussion of justice-centered computing with the practical realities of curriculum design.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2417014
- PAR ID:
- 10628019
- Publisher / Repository:
- Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT 2025)
- Date Published:
- ISSN:
- xxxx-xxxx
- ISBN:
- 979-8-4007-0626-4
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 176-185
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3704637.3734779
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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