Paper Summary
Share...

Direct link:

A Long-Term Research-Practice Partnership for Equitable, Sustainable STEM Design

Sat, April 9, 4:05 to 5:35pm, Convention Center, Floor: Level One, Room 102 B

Abstract

The GET City Partnership represents university and community members collaborating to design equitable STEM learning experiences for youth from underrepresented backgrounds. This collaboration has been the forefront of creating serious conversations in our community around what high quality STEM experiences can be for youth in low-income communities, and the hoped for impacts on youth development. Our collaboration began in 2006 when we recognized that we shared this goal. Since 2006, our partnership has have reached thousands of youth and community members through afterschool and summer programs, workshops, and community events.

At the heart of our partnership are a set of shared beliefs about working towards equitable outcomes, including drawing upon the strengths that each brings to the table, on-going communication for building a shared vision, and working for change – change in how we make sense of, design, and deliver equitable programs for youth, and change in ourselves as we learn from each other and the process (Bang et al, 2010). The process is not always smooth, even when the collaborative relationships are strong. Change is difficult, and the process is always under the stress of external forces, such as limited access to resources for community and public organizations, competing external priorities, and broader sociohistorical narratives/practices about equity and STEM.

In response, we have found that we are able to sustain our efforts by foregrounding the importance of youth participatory methodologies. By inviting the youth to play powerful roles as co-researchers and co-developers, their voices provide a centering mechanism.

In our poster we focus on three interrelated threads.

First, we describe the importance of youth participatory methodologies as a grounding mechanism of our partnership (Cammarota & Fine, 2008). We focus on the importance of a weekly conversation we hold with youth, where they provide on-going direction and feedback regarding our partnership programs. We also focus on the importance of youth researchers – youth who play the role of broker between our partnership and other participating youth and families. We also believe that youth participatory methodologies are important in supporting youth in trusting the process and the ones delivering the process.

Second, we describe the tools and routines that have emerged from our efforts to listen to and learn from youth that keep us focused on our commitment to work for equity, such as the importance of deliberate efforts to talk about particular youth and their work/development, “thinking big” conversations (what we hope/dream for), and weekly check-ins.

Third, we describe how attention on youth voices enables on-going productive change in ourselves and in our partnership. For example, what started off as a partnership focused on offering short term programs for middle school youth, has developed into year-round programming that incorporates family and community engagement, authentic community concerns, and opportunities for youth to form empowering relationships with leaders of local professional and academic communities. This partnership has also resulted in physical changes to the club, as they secured a new green roof based on youth research and action taking on energy- and community-related issues.

Authors