Recruitment. STEM Siren Songs: A Conceptual Framework of the Differential Racialization of Pre-service STEM Teachers of Color

• In Event: AERA Teachers of Color Handbook Session 1

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on the marginalizing experiences students of color face in STEM majors. Using differential racialization as a theoretical framework, we analyze prior research to create a conceptual framework oriented toward complexifying our understandings of racialized experiences of pre-service STEM teachers of color in their content majors. We align early-stage college experiences of “weed-out” culture endemic in STEM majors with a racialized notion of othering. We align Delgado’s (2000) notion of the siren song of uniqueness to late-stage college experiences of tokenism and commodification of STEM students of color being “one of the good ones”. Drawing from multiple teacher of color programs and initiatives, we operationalize our conceptual framework to inform our own emerging recruitment program design.

Authors

• Vincent Basile, Colorado State University - Fort Collins

• Ricki Ginsberg, Colorado State University