I Own My STEM Journey: Young Black Women Authoring 3-D Re-Presentations of Their STEM Pathways

• In Event: Equity and Access in Science: Understanding Pathways Frameworks for Youth Learning and Development

Abstract

Purpose
In this project, a group of young, African American, female science enthusiasts and learners mapped their journeys (including ecological contexts like people, places, and events) as they worked to author unique and powerful science pathways for themselves. The purpose of this work was to illuminate often-invisible perspectives and challenges of youth who seek out and explore science learning opportunities over time and across life spaces. We discuss affordances of youth participatory, critical ethnographic, and social justice methodologies, for recognizing, analyzing, and supporting youth development and learning pathways.

Design and Methods
We embrace youth participatory methods to recognize our participants as partners with agency and unique voices. We acknowledge the complex and overlapping roles we embody as collaborators, mentors, teachers, network gatekeepers, and participant-observers. We use critical ethnographic and social justice methodologies to problematize traditional power structures that mediate youth movement and development in the contexts we study. Participants include 5 women (ages 12-19) who identify as black, female, low-SES, and interested in future STEM learning and work; we have had STEM-related relationships with each for at least 3 years. Participants created innovative, three-dimensional visualizations of experiences they argue were important in shaping their unique STEM journeys. They 3D-modeled which events were important and why, with a coding framework they developed. They indicated which connections were stronger/weaker, where they felt more/less empowered, where they did/didn’t have helpful relationships, etc.

Findings
One interesting tension to emerge was what one youth called "implicit" (versus "explicit") pathways into STEM. She described the pathways she navigated as implicit because they did not contain events typically legitimized as STEM-preparatory. As the first in her family to author a STEM pathway, she described often feeling like an imposter for daring to claim that journey, and she highlighted the critical junctures that illuminated resources and tools that helped her to clear safe spaces in otherwise unsafe and uncharted territory.

Another interesting finding relates to how participants considered the importance of pathway representations---they saw their maps as tools for peer empowerment, inspiration, and responsive, transformative action. One participant explained that publicly sharing her life story in such a visually impactful way, beyond text, was important “for future kids to be inspired and think, ‘Oh! This chick didn't go the traditional route but she still got there and I can too.’"

We present youth-generated pathway representations (e.g., figures 1 and 2) and describe the often-invisible perspectives and challenges of the youth as they named them in their representations.

Significance
New methods for creating striking and memorable 3D visualizations of often-untold and marginalized life stories in STEM are powerful tools for pushing these stories more immediately and directly in front of the decision-makers who need to see, recognize, and acknowledge them. This work is increasingly urgent to ensure more democratic and equitable action from the educational leaders who control the power structures that matter to youth and who design, facilitate and gate-keep educational opportunities that allow diverse youth to author the STEM journeys they desire.

Authors

• Day W Greenberg, Michigan State University

• Angela Calabrese Barton, Michigan State University

• Christina Restrepo Nazar, Michigan State University

• Myunghwan Shin, Michigan State University

• Chandler Turner, University of Notre Dame

• Camryn Turner