Exclusions: Using AI to Uplift Minority Voices in STEM Higher Education

• In Event: Equity, Technology, and Emerging Literacies

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of the rollback of the DEI initiative on the STEM research process of minority college students and faculty. It also explores possibilities for using artificial intelligence (AI) to promote racial equity and culturally responsive teaching pedagogy in STEM higher education. This is a qualitative study using personal Zoom videotaped interviews. Ten minority college engineering students and ten faculty members participated in this study. This study reveals that the impact of DEI-STEM rollback on minority college students and faculty was not only material (loss of funding), but also psychological and cultural. The findings also suggest that using AI tools through culturally responsive teaching and equity-centered methods in engineering classes can help students develop their positive self-concept.

Author

• Show Mei Lin, Tennessee State University