"Yardie Get Di Blame": Exploring Positionality, Transnationalism, and Cultural Capital in Social Justice STEM Education

• In Event: Transnational Teachers' Experiences and Identities

Abstract

This conceptual paper represents a critical reflection on how Faith, a Jamaican immigrant and Black woman, is framed in an analysis of her development as social justice oriented teacher. We share ideas that add nuance to a white woman researcher’s analyses of Faith's beliefs and practices. In doing so, we reframe key concepts on 1) seeing immigrant background as cultural capital in the classroom rather than as an impediment to science teaching, 2) understanding the myth of meritocracy from a critical race theory lens, and 3) expanding transnational notions of the ideological and practical underpinnings inherent in teaching for social justice. We further examine how minoritized forms of cultural capital can work to disrupt oppressive ideology and practices in education.

Authors

• Takeshia Pierre, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Chonika Coleman-King, University of Florida
  Presenting Author