Participatory Action Research for Disruption and Transformation: Equitable Postsecondary Science Trajectories for Black Students (Poster 7)

• In Event: Mapping the Landscape of Improvement Research: Representing Diverse Approaches Using a Common Grammar

Abstract

Purpose

This poster uses our study of postsecondary science degree trajectories for Black students to represent participatory action research (PAR) as a formal approach to improvement research.

Perspective

PAR is a study process designed, implemented, and disseminated in collaboration between researchers and individuals who are potential benefactors of the research to examine and address social issues (Cammarota & Fine, 2008; Fine et al., 2003; McIntyre, 2008). Based on the investigation of the social issue, co-researchers develop evidence-based strategies, ideas, or products that seek to further social justice and social change (McIntyre, 2008).

Modes of Inquiry

We showcase our efforts to use PAR in collaboration with Black undergraduate students in science. Our seven-year PAR study included collaborating with 10 Black undergraduate student co-researchers who were all science majors, a Black student in a master’s in public health program, and a doctoral research assistant in education.

Data Sources

We drew on a study that included fifty-two Black undergraduate science majors across three public institutions. As a community of scholars, our study employed asset-based frameworks, specifically anti-deficit achievement framework (Harper, 2010) and community cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005) to examine the assets, resources, and networks that support Black students’ science degree trajectories despite inequities and to learn from Black students who have reached their final year of their degree programs. Participants of the study engaged in two interviews and a photo-elicitation project where they were asked to take photographs of the resources, networks, and assets that supported their science degree and career trajectories.

Findings

Building the foundational conditions: The faculty co-researchers engaged and unpacked how power materialized in the project to ensure an authentic, participatory study in collaboration with Black undergraduate student co-researchers.

Mapping the improvement space: The community of scholars drew upon interviews and visual data (e.g., photographs) to understand the assets, resources, and networks that supported Black students’ science degree trajectories, while also exploring institutional structures and practices that hindered their science futures.

Identifying a theory of improvement: PAR centers collaboration with individuals who are potential benefactors of research to develop strategies and ideas to further social justice and change. In our case, the faculty co-researchers collaborated with student co-researchers to examine data, generate ideas, and develop and implement strategies that responded to the social injustices and inequities revealed in the research process (McIntyre, 2008).

Iterating and measuring: Scholars used data from our study to develop and pilot a virtual, synchronous workshop for STEM faculty and administrators with a focus on how they could improve their teaching, mentoring, and advising of Black students.

Spreading and sustaining improvement: The student co-researchers used the virtual, synchronous workshop to develop and record a five-part online professional development opportunity for STEM faculty and staff that is available on YouTube to better support Black students in STEM.

Significance

By engaging in a PAR study with Black undergraduate co-researchers, we were able to collaboratively study postsecondary science degree trajectories for rural students and “respond in humanizing and authentic ways” to inequitable trajectories (McIntyre, 2008, p. 47).

Authors

• Darris Roshawn Means, Clemson University

• Julie Dangremond Stanton, University of Georgia