Toward Social Justice: How Youth Led Transformation in a Regional Science Center

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Civic Education in an Era of Political Turmoil (Table 26)

Abstract

Despite promising meaningful STEM engagement for youth, many informal science institutions still reflect White supremacy and patriarchal worldviews in discourses, structures, and practices. Using a longitudinal, critical participatory ethnographic approach, we explored how a regional science center in collaboration with a Youth Action Council, sought to “reclaim” the center from its colonial, White, and patriarchal histories. Analysis reveals how a set of guiding lenses - intersectional representation, functional critique, and authority - created “pausing spaces” for challenging dominant power structures through new, emergent discourses, practices and spatialities. We share an illustrative case of the Centre’s iconic Big Mouth exhibit to highlight how these lenses and pausing spaces supported institutional transformation. Implications for advancing the ISL towards justice are discussed

Authors

• Wisam Sedawi, University of Michigan

• Angela Calabrese, University of Michigan