Reenvisioning STEM Education for Black Learners in Urban Spaces

• In Event: Defining, Conceptualizing, and Reimagining Urban STEM Education

Abstract

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education of Black learners in K-12 urban schools is shaped by the deficit paradigm and broader sociopolitical landscape. Mathematics is the gatekeeper to access to STEM specialties. Reports of the so-called racial achievement gap in mathematics between Black and white students coupled with STEM course grades, course participation, and racist views and beliefs about Black youth intelligence have contributed to the deficit paradigm (Davis, 2018; Martin, 2009). Failure and underachievement in STEM subjects have become synonymous with Black learners in urban areas because of the deficit paradigm. Very little consideration has been given to successful and high-achieving Black students in STEM areas in urban spaces. Black scholars have challenged the deficit paradigm and ushered in a paradigm shift focused on success and high achieving Black learners in STEM disciplines (Martin, 2000; Ellington & Frederick, 2010; Jett, 2019). Most of the scholarship in this paradigm has occurred in mathematics education. Research of successful and high-achieving Black youth in STEM disciplines is growing (McGee, 2013) but is still sparse, especially in urban areas (Thompson & Lewis, 2005; Thompson & Davis, 2013).
Scholarship centered on Black learners in the deficit paradigm are aligned with Eurocentric goals and objectives designed to uphold the fallacy of white superiority and power structures in STEM disciplines and the larger society. Politically, STEM fields play a significant role in promoting and advancing gentrification in urban areas that sustains Black oppression, global capitalism, and international warfare to protect and expand the white power structure in all areas of people's activity (Morales-Doyle & Gutstein, 2019). Most efforts to increase Black learners’ participation in STEM disciplines in urban areas seek to prepare them to work for white STEM companies to further develop white economic, social, and political power globally and further oppress Black people.
In my scholarly work, I have research, policy, and practitioner experiences with Black youth in mathematics, computer science/technology, engineering, and science disciplines in urban environments (Davis, 2014; Coleman & Davis, 2020). My core focus in STEM education subjects has been in mathematics, but I have conceptualized STEM subject matters by merging two disciplines and integrated them across all the disciplines. The quality of Black students' STEM education varies in urban spaces based on how they are aligned with the of the white power structure. In my analysis, most efforts to increase Black learners’ participation in STEM disciplines seek to ultimately prepare them to work for white STEM companies to further develop white economic, social, and political power globally, not challenge or disrupt it. I have argued that Black students must learn STEM disciplines to address the problems plaguing Black people and communities, and the knowledge must be used for their total liberation (Davis, Anderson, & Parker, 2019). In this presentation, I argue for a re-envisioning STEM education for Black youth in urban areas that lead them and the global Black community to build institutions to be self-sufficient, amass power to fight against racism (white supremacy), and achieve total liberation.

Author

• Julius Davis, Bowie State University
  Presenting Author