Pipelines Through the City: STEM as an Equity Strategy for Urban Schools

• In Event: STEM as an Urban Equity Strategy: Memphis as a Microcosm

Abstract

The final paper of this session represents an effort to take the results and conclusions of the previous four papers and weave these into a lens through which to examine the possibilities of STEM as an equity strategy in other urban districts. Drawing on the case of a single urban district, we outline a framework to consider the various aspects of STEM education in urban school settings.
In discussing the results of the papers in this session, we begin by offering a set of “Five W” questions around STEM education in urban schools. These questions draw from the papers individually and collectively:
•Who(m)? For whom is STEM education intended?
•What? What is students’ opportunity to learn (OTL) with regard to STEM?
•When? When do students have access to STEM?
•Where? Where are the schools offering STEM education located?
•Why? Why is STEM education utilized in this context?

As we connect these questions to the conclusions of the earlier paper in the session, we also draw upon the conceptual and theoretical frameworks utilized in these papers. For example, the question of who STEM programs and schools are intended to serve relates to the CRT concept of whiteness as property. Similarly, the question of why STEM education is employed in a particular setting relates to the definition of equity, whether self-interest or social justice.
As we seek to weave these threads together, we turn to the frequently used pipeline metaphor for STEM education (Cannady, Greenwald, & Harris, 2014). How do the answers to the “Five W” questions shape the functioning of the pipeline? For example, is there a single pipeline to serve all students in the district? Or are there, in fact, two distinct pipelines, each with its own set of answers to the “Five W” questions?
In addition to considering the STEM pipeline with regard to the “Five W” questions, we also seek to identify the places where the “flow” through the pipeline is either narrowed or expanded. What are the structural challenges to increasing the flow? In what ways can this increased flow be supported?
Finally, we intentionally situate this examination of the STEM pipeline within the context of urban education. How do the particular conditions of urban schools shape the functioning of this pipeline? What does it mean to build a STEM pipeline through the city? In this conceptual paper, we build this model and attempt to theorize on the role of STEM education as an urban equity strategy.

Authors

• Celia Rousseau Anderson, The University of Memphis

• Erika C. Bullock, University of Wisconsin - Madison