Reducing Inequality in STEM Through Broadened Participation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 1:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Empowered Voices: Rethinking and Reclaiming Pedagogy in Indigenous Contexts

Abstract

Indigenous peoples of US island territories and US-affiliated island regions have developed deep knowledge of their island environments and regularly engage in applied STEM as they participate in traditional practices. This ecological knowledge has not been privileged in the western-based curriculum used in most island schools. This paper shares the perspectives of Pacific Islanders in science career pathways at the University of Guam. Our hypothesis posited that as students explore research possibilities tied to their own island environments and contexts, they increase sense of belonging to their heritage cultures and to the STEM community, and they develop their academic, scientific, and cultural identities.

Author

• Sharon Nelson-Barber, WestEd