Integrating Embodiment and the Whole Self Into STEM Thinking and Learning for African American Girls

• In Event: Black Girls' Learning, Identity, and Engagement in STEM Through Dance

Abstract

Low levels of achievement have persisted among youth of color and youth from low-income backgrounds even with a recent emphasis on issues of STEM engagement, interest, and achievement among underrepresented youth. Researchers have documented the gaps among children from historically marginalized communities even despite 20 years of science and math reform efforts in schools and out (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). The statistics are particularly distressing for African American girls, who have historically and consistently performed lower on academic measures when compared to girls more generally (Smith-Evans & George, 2014). Black girls, who are disproportionally concentrated in under resourced schools and less likely to be taught by highly qualified teachers, often have limited access to high-quality resources and inequitable exposure to quality instruction and out-of-school experiences (Margolis, Estrella, Goode, Jellison Holne, & Nao, 2003; Barton, Tan & Rivet, 2008; Brickhouse, Lowry, & Schulz, 2000; Carlone, 2004). They also encounter “deeply embedded racial and gender stereotypes, which lead to harsher disciplinary actions for non-conforming behaviors such as expressing their opinions and discouragement from participating in STEM learning opportunities” (Buck, Beeman-Cadwallader & Trauth-Nare, 2015). While these issues can create an infertile context for motivation and interest in STEM, the issue is not as simple as lack of exposure or stereotypes, and low performance on academic measures do not tell a complete story. Research has tended to view issues of motivation and achievement through a lens that characterizes minorities through the deficits in their STEM participation, college-level STEM matriculation and STEM career choice (Buck et al., 2015). That research, grounded in the underlying assumption that the cultural values of black youth are aligned with white, middle-class norms that position STEM as valuable, suggests that dominant and nondominant youth have the same motivations for participating and excelling in STEM activities. Providing quality opportunities for STEM learning for them requires not only thinking about what and how they should be learning, but also designing STEM experiences that align with their ways of being, ways of working, and community and cultural values.

This work explores learning in an environment designed to support STEM engagement through embodied experiences. The analysis and findings feature girls (ages 9-14) working together to create projects that explain science phenomena using electronic elements (i.e. LED lights, Arduino boards, conductive clay), and dance choreography in a 4-week dance makerspace summer program. The design intentionally privileged their ways of knowing as dancers and positioned science content, practices, and technology as useful tools to help them engage in the creative work they were interested in doing. Examples will show moments that are reflective of an environment that allowed black girls to explore science, engineering and technology in ways that could look like them and be represented through their music, their movement and expressive styles, their cultural references, their practices and ways of being in the world. Dance/Making provided a rich medium for integration because it required embodied thinking and personal investment and provided the space for them to figure out their projects in their own ways.

Author

• Dionne N Champion, University of Florida