STEM ACCESS: Partnering Teachers With Undergraduates of Color to Engineer Justice in STEM Education

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: K–12 Partnerships That Advance Asset-Orientation, Equity, and Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Pedagogies (Table 14)

Abstract

In this paper, we describe STEM ACCESS, a conceptual model for a school-community partnership that partners undergraduates of color with middle school STEM teachers to provide culturally relevant STEM learning experiences for historically marginalized youth. The model is grounded in sociocultural theories and critical race design and is informed by three years of implementation in a large urban school district. We draw on various data sources, including interviews, field notes, focus groups, and surveys. The model emphasizes the importance of positioning undergraduates of color as brokers who can help to engineer justice in STEM education by providing critical and creative adaptations to the curriculum and centering the stories and perspectives of middle school youth.

Authors

• Lindy L. Johnson, College of William & Mary

• Meredith Weaver Kier, College of William & Mary