Co-Designing for Rightful Presence in Informal Science Learning Environments

• In Event: Division K Section 1 Poster Session: Math, Science, and STEM

Abstract

Addressing the ways in which systemic injustices manifest in learning environments has been a significant challenge informal science education. Dominant discourses of equity are framed around inclusion, grounded in the extension of a set of rights for quality learning opportunities for all. We move beyond inclusionary approaches to the justice-oriented framework of rightful presence. Grounded in participatory design-based research, findings explore how possibilities for rightful presence arise when educators and youth collaboratively engage in exposing, resisting, and disrupting injustices in STEM and learning. These possibilities are characterized by opportunities for youth to foreground their lived lives and community wisdom in ways that shift the boundaries of who and what STEM is for. Implications for rightful presence in ISL are discussed.

Authors

• Angela Calabrese Barton, University of Michigan

• Won Jung Kim, Santa Clara University

• Edna Tan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro