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A critical race theory analysis of STEM schools in an urban school district
Abstract
The creation of specialty science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) Schools has been presented as a way to improve both academic and STEM‐related outcomes, particularly in urban school districts where “failing” schools are converted the STEM Schools. This study examines this conversion process through the tenets of critical race theory, particularly the tenets of Whiteness as property, interest convergence, and the power of discourse. Using data collected from 28 textual sources and 29 interviews of teachers, students, and administrators at STEM Schools, a comparative case study approach was used to examine the historical development of two STEM Schools in one urban area. Findings indicated that the creation of STEM Schools was a way to protect STEM as a property of Whiteness by funneling resources toward White, middle‐class students. Additionally, the motivation for the conversions demonstrates how interest convergence functions in educational reform. In particular, the interests of White parents (to have access to high‐quality educational resources) and industry leaders (to develop a STEM workforce) temporarily converged with the interests of local families to improve neighborhood schools. However, ultimately, Black students and families, particularly those from lower socioeconomic status, were not served by the new STEM Schools.
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This article asserts that despite the salience of race in U.S. society, as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it remains untheorized. The article argues for a critical race theoretical perspective in education analogous to that of critical race theory in legal scholarship by developing three propositions: (1) race continues to be significant in the United States; (2) U.S. society is based on property rights rather than human rights; and (3) the intersection of race and property creates an analytical tool for understanding inequity. The article concludes with a look at the limitations of the current multicultural paradigm.
While a mutually agreed-upon definition of STEM education remains elusive, there is no doubt that instructional models and ideas put forward with the STEM label have had a tremendous impact on thinking, debate, and practice in schools worldwide. At issue is the degree to which some or all the STEM disciplines must be taught in a concurrent or combined way, so curricula can qualify for the STEM education label. In this manuscript, we unpack the various perspectives of STEM that have evolved recently and propose the acronym I-STEM for any integrated instructional blending of the individual STEM elements. We examine some problematic issues related to what seems a premature acceptance of I-STEM and conclude with some suggestions for the science education community relative to the emergence of STEM. This article is written from the perspective of improving the teaching and learning of science, and if I-STEM can be shown to further advance that aim, it would be foolish not to embrace it. However, if I-STEM is being promoted on the tenuous empirical and philosophical foundation we see presently, we must slow down. We must ensure that we really want this revolution in science education to succeed. We worry that science content and process learning opportunities might too easily be lost in a rush to teach STEM in a manner that gives substantial instructional time and energy to all of the disciplines regardless of the context of the classroom in which it is taught.
The aim of this study is to examine how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is implemented in the published literature. To accomplish this, the educational experiences published in indexed magazines in the main Web of Science collection during the 2013–2018 period were examined, with special attention paid to (a) The STEM concepts defined in the theoretical frameworks; (b) the STEM disciplines that intervene; (c) the possible benefits of STEM education; and (d) the key aspects for the success of the educational intervention. The results indicate that the theoretical frameworks used normally focus more on the variables that are the object of the study than on STEM education, and that there are multiple interpretations of what STEM education is, and these interpretations do usually involve the integrated appearance of the four disciplines that make up the acronym.
The disparity between the race and ethnicity of teachers and students is expected to increase as our nation and classrooms continue to become more racially, ethnically , linguistically, and economically diverse. It is extremely important to think about not only the educational needs of such a diverse student population within schools but also who will teach these students. However, when looking at subject-matter specificity for the retention of Teachers of Color, such as science teachers, the picture becomes extremely serious when we understand teachers' paths into and out of science and teaching.
The purpose of the study is to analyze the experiences of preservice Teachers of Color (PTOC) enrolled in an elementary science methods course as they gain access to science as White property. Our analysis provides evidence that PTOC can break the perpetual cycle of alienation, exclusion, and inequity in science when they are given opportunities to engage in science as learners and teachers. In addition, we also offer insights regarding the role science teacher educators may play in preparing teachers and especially TOC for urban schools.
Inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) (where STEM is science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) admit students on the basis of interest rather than competitive examination. This study examines the central assumption behind these schools—that they provide students from subgroups underrepresented in STEM with experiences that equip them academically and attitudinally to enter and stay in the STEM pipeline. Hierarchical modeling was applied to data from student surveys and state longitudinal data records for 5113 students graduating from 39 ISHSs and 22 comprehensive high schools in North Carolina and Texas. Compared to peers from the same demographic group with similar Grade 8 achievement levels, underrepresented minority and female ISHS students in both states were more likely to undertake advanced STEM coursework. Hispanics in Texas and females in both states expressed more STEM career interest in Grade 12 if they attended an ISHS. Positive relationships between ISHS attendance and grade point average were found in the total sample and each subgroup in North Carolina. Positive ISHS advantages in terms of test scores for the total student sample were found for science in both states and for mathematics in Texas. For the various student subgroups, test score differences favored the ISHS samples but attained statistical significance only for African Americans’ science achievement scores in the Texas study.
Specialized secondary schools in the United States focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are becoming commonplace in the United States. Such schools are generally referred to by U.S. teachers as Academies. In a purposeful effort to provide a resource to educators building new STEM Academies, this study provides both a review of scholarly literature and the interview results from five successful STEM Academy educators from across the United States. This research addresses two overarching questions, a) what are the best practices of STEM Academies, and b) what are the key learning objectives of STEM Academies? Subject integration, in-house engineering curriculum design, student cohorts, community involvement, and internships were all revealed as being consistently reflective of best practices used in successful STEM Academies. Key learning objectives consistent across the literature and in interview results were: problem solving/the engineering design process and soft skills, such as student collaboration, communication, presentation skills and time management.
This instrumental case study of Manor New Tech High (MNTH) provides insight and understanding of a trend in U.S. education to create new STEM schools and increase the achievement of students underrepresented in STEM. MNTH was an inclusive, STEM-focused high school, in Manor, Texas. The creation of the school was stimulated by a statewide Texas STEM education policy initiative, seed money from private foundations, and local community support. MNTH was chosen for this study because of its diverse student population and reputation as a successful, innovative STEM school. The case provides an in-depth look at the school’s design, implementation, and outcome dimensions, in context. Ten candidate critical components framed the study and illuminate opportunity structures for MNTH students as they learned STEM and built social capital. MNTH implemented a project-based learning instructional environment, ubiquitous integration of technology, and a strong STEM curriculum. Teachers collaborated to create innovative curriculum and instruction, led by an energetic, well-connected principal. A robust network of student supports helped to ensure that students attained the skills and confidence in STEM and for college admission. The positive school culture promoted a sense of family, and the STEM focus enabled acquisition of 21st century skills.
This paper shares findings of a nation wide survey of specialized STEM school administrators and teachers about the practices they engage to provide meaningful learning for their students.
This study aims to generate a conceptual framework for specialized Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) schools. To do so, we focused on literature and found specialized STEM schools have existed for over 100 years and recently expanded nationwide. The current perception for these schools can be described as unique environments including advanced curriculum, expert teachers, and opportunities for internships and immersion. Researchers have categorized these schools with three types: (a) selective STEM schools, (b) inclusive STEM schools, and (c) schools with STEM-focused career and technical education (CTE). Finding from the studies exploring college and career readiness of students attending these schools revealed students from specialized STEM schools are performing slightly better on high-stake mathematics and science tests in comparison with students in traditional schools. Studies also showed students from specialized STEM schools are more interested in STEM, more willing to attend classes, more likely to pass state tests, and more likely to earn college degrees. After synthesizing the literature, we created a conceptual framework of effective learning environments for specialized STEM schools using an ecology metaphor. This framework included actors (students, teachers, community leaders, and role models), contextual factors (learning environments, curriculum, instructional strategies, advanced coursework, and technology use), and actions (teaching, learning, immersion, communication, partnering, mentoring, support, and assessment).
The logic underlying inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) posits that requiring all students to take advanced college preparatory STEM courses while providing student-centered, reform-oriented instruction, ample student supports, and real-world STEM experiences and role models will prepare and inspire students admitted on the basis of STEM interest rather than prior achievement for postsecondary STEM. This study tests that logic model by comparing the high school experiences and achievement of students in ISHSs and comparison schools in North Carolina. After identifying ISHS and non-STEM comparison high schools serving students who were similar in terms of socioeconomic status and academic achievement prior to high school entry, we employed propensity-score weighting and HLM modeling to estimate the impact of attending an ISHS on a set of outcome measures obtained from student surveys and from the state's longitudinal student data system. Analyses of student survey data found that attending an ISHS raises the likelihood that a student will complete pre-calculus or calculus and chemistry in high school, leads to increased involvement in STEM extracurricular and out-of-class activities, and enhances interest in science careers and aspirations to earn a master's or higher degree. Analyses of student outcome data from state administrative records revealed a positive impact of inclusive STEM high school attendance on grade point average (GPA) but not on ACT scores. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach
The most prominent option for finding a solution to the shortage of workers with STEM knowledge has been identified as specialized STEM schools by policymakers in the United States. The current perception of specialized STEM schools can be described as a unique environment that includes advanced curriculum, expert teachers, and opportunities for internships and immersion. This study highlights the college readiness of STEM school graduates in comparison with traditional high school graduates. Using 11th grade students’ high-stake test results in reading, mathematics, and science, this article compares the achievement outcomes of both school types. In answering the research questions related to student success for attendees of either STEM or traditional schools, this research concluded that success with reading, mathematics, and science high-stake tests for students does not differ by school type. However, student demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and special education status) may influence the success of students attending STEM schools. For example, the results revealed a statistical significance between the reading, mathematics, and science scores of male, Hispanic, White, and economically disadvantaged students from STEM and traditional schools.
In this article, we present findings from a three-year comparative longitudinal and ethnographic study of how schools in two cities, Buffalo and Denver, have taken up STEM education reform, including the idea of “inclusive STEM-focused schools,” to address weaknesses in urban high schools with majority low-income and minority students. Although introduced with great fanfare, the data indicate that well-meaning efforts toward expanding opportunities in STEM-focused schools for low-income underrepresented minorities quickly dissolved. We focus on mechanisms that seem to underlie this dissolution and consider its contributions to short- and long-term inequalities.
The purpose of this study is to determine how students who attended T-STEM academies performed on the mathematics section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) compared to their corresponding peers who attended traditional public schools in Texas. The present study included 18 T-STEM academies and 18 matched non-STEM schools. The sample consisted of three years of TAKS mathematics data for 3026 students, of which 1506 attended 18 T-STEM academies and 1520 attended 18 non-STEM schools in Texas. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to construct a three-level model for analysis. Results revealed that at the end of grade 9, students who attended T-STEM academies performed higher in mathematics compared to their counterparts in comparison schools, but no difference was found in their mean mathematics score's growth rate from 2009 to 2011. In terms of gender, the present study found that female students who attended T-STEM academies performed higher on TAKS mathematics than male students in comparison schools.
Amid the growth of charter schools, autonomous schools, and private management organizations, an increasing number of urban districts are moving toward a portfolio management model (PMM). In a PMM, the district central office oversees schools that operate under a variety of governance models. The expansion of PMMs raises questions about local control, as new national and local organizations become increasingly central players in the design and delivery of public education and educational systems. Looking across 10 distinct localities, this paper explores the variations in the role of local, state, and national actors in the initiation of PMMs and the provision of education within them. We find that the relationship between PMM reforms and issues of local control is a complicated one mediated by local contexts, including local civic and provider capacity, available resources, and issues of governance.
Historically, the mission of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) schools emphasized providing gifted and talented students with advanced STEM coursework. However, a newer type of STEM school is emerging in the United States: inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs). ISHSs have open enrollment and are focused on preparing underrepresented youth for the successful pursuit of advanced STEM studies. They promise to provide a critical mass of nontraditional STEM students, defying stereotypes about who does STEM and creating positive STEM identities. In this article, we advance a conceptual framework designed to systematically capture the qualities of ISHSs that can provide exciting new possibilities for students and communities. An iterative review of the literature suggests 10 critical components that may work together across 3 dimensions: design, implementation, and outcomes. Our goal is to apply this framework in various school models to better understand the opportunity structures that emerge and to create a theory of action of ISHSs.
The central thesis of this article is that conceptualizations of accountability systems need to be more encompassing to accommodate the current diversity of school choice. This article examines an emerging type of school that specializes in advanced STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum for gifted and academically talented students. These schools, found in the US, parts of Southeast Asia, and Australia, are typically not held accountable through standardized testing but through other less well-defined measures. Here, we examine a specialized US STEM school to show why it is important for such a school to demonstrate accountability through everyday school operations - the projection of positive school image, the control of teacher quality, and the provision of advanced classroom curriculum. Using Foucault's concept of power as a microanalytic tool to critically examine artifacts and critical narratives constructed from interviews and lesson observations, we show how institutional, professional, and personal accountabilities were achieved using hierarchical observations, normalizing views, examination, and simple tools. The broad implication for education policy makers is that accountability measures extend beyond standardized test scores, and to adequately understand how they function within schools, we need to consider other types of evidence arising from school-identified goals and aims.
Critical race theory (CRT) first emerged as a counterlegal scholarship to the positivistand liberal legal discourse of civil rights. This scholarly tradition argues against the slow pace of racial reform in the United States. Critical race theory begins with the notion that racism is normal in American society. It departs from mainstream legal scholarship by sometimes employing storytelling. It critiques liberalism and argues that Whites have been the primary beneficiaries of civil rights legislation.Since schooling in the USA purports to prepare citizens, CRT looks at how citizenship and race might interact. Critical race theory's usefulness in understanding education inequity is in its infancy. It requires a critique of some of the civil rights era's most cherished legal victories and educationalreform movements, such as multiculturalism. The paper concludes with words of caution about the use of CRT in education without a more thorough analysis of the legal literature upon which it is based.
In an attempt to broaden participation in STEM, a new type of high school is emerging, high schools which include a focus on engineering, have few or no academic admission criteria, and actively involve students of all levels of ability, known as Inclusive STEM High Schools (ISHSs). One aspect of successful ISHSs includes the intentional and explicit integration of engineering learning opportunities into coursework. The purpose of this paper is to report results of a systematic cross-case analysis exploring the extent of engineering learning opportunities in five exemplar ISHSs. The results are framed by the Engineering in K-12 Education report from which seven different topics were derived to appropriately represent the field of engineering in schools: design, identifying constraints, modeling and analysis, engineering habits of mind, systems thinking, modeling, identifying constraints, communication, and optimization,. The cross-case analysis was conducted by aggregating the information gathered through surveys, interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, and document analysis, noting similarities and differences across schools and mechanisms for the course foci. It was found in the participating ISHSs that engineering is not merely an elective; all students must take at least one engineering course to graduate, although the states in which the schools are located did not require engineering for a diploma. The most prominent topics from the recommended list found at the schools were design, engineering habits of mind, and communication, while the least prominent were modeling, analysis, and identifying constraints. Based on the results of this study, the engineering education community is encouraged to continue making engineering concepts and skills accessible to K-12 educators, who may not have prior formal training in the field of engineering or engineering education.
The rhetoric about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in urban schools reflects a desire to imagine a new city that is poised to compete in a STEM-centered future. Therefore, STEM has been positioned as a critical part of urban education reform efforts. In various US cities, schools labeled as failing are being repurposed as selective STEM-intensive academies to build a STEM education infrastructure. In Memphis, Tennessee, this process makes visible issues with educational inequity, exacerbated by school choice and gentrification processes. In this article, I use whiteness as property, a tenet of critical race theory, to examine STEM education in Memphis as a case of urban STEM-based education reform in the United States. I describe claiming STEM education as property as a 2-phase process in which middle-class Whites in urban areas participate to secure STEM education by repurposing failed Black schools and to maintain it by institutionalizing selective admissions strategies.
Comparative case studies are an effective qualitative tool for researching the impact of policy and practice in various fields of social research, including education. Developed in response to the inadequacy of traditional case study approaches, comparative case studies are highly effective because of their ability to synthesize information across time and space. In Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach, the authors describe, explain, and illustrate the horizontal, vertical, and transversal axes of comparative case studies in order to help readers develop their own comparative case study research designs. In six concise chapters, two experts employ geographically distinct case studies-from Tanzania to Guatemala to the U.S.-to show how this innovative approach applies to the operation of policy and practice across multiple social fields. With examples and activities from anthropology, development studies, and policy studies, this volume is written for researchers, especially graduate students, in the fields of education and the interpretive social sciences.
STEM interested students and graduates shape the future of a country. However, in the U.S., the number of STEM graduates was not sufficient; therefore, to increase this number, STEM school designation started. The number of STEM schools has been increasing and Texas was one of the states showing growth over time. STEM schools in Texas (T-STEM) were converted from different schools by specific procedures. The highest number of T-STEM conversion was from charter schools. The effectiveness of T-STEM charter schools compared to regular charter schools (non-T-STEM charter) was worth to examine because the number of T-STEM schools converted from charter schools was noteworthy. Moreover, the most important goal of T-STEM schools was to improve students’ STEM achievement. In this study, to investigate the effectiveness of T-STEM charter schools, students’ mathematics achievement over three years (through high school) was examined. There were 1481 participants in the study. To have comparable two groups, propensity score matching was used. After matching, hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze students’ mathematics achievement longitudinally considering student variables. The findings showed that T-STEM charter schools were effective to increase one minority group’s (i.e. Hispanic students) mathematics achievement over time.
Drawing on a 3-year ethnographic study in 2 urban high schools serving majority low-income students of color, we reveal how the meaning and authoring of self in mathematics and science are produced among high-achieving students in contexts profoundly influenced by neoliberal policies. We highlight the institutional practices and cultural imaginaries that students responded to as they developed identities in math and science at the schools. These processes ”hollowed out” the identity of “being good” at mathematics and science while conferring status and good moral character on those who could author themselves in these shallow terms.
Internationally, STEM has become a slogan for organizing new discourses and practices in science education. In the form of a three-act play, we argue that STEM as social engineering orients and organizes school science education curriculum development in directions of scientific innovation and engineering that reinforce and legitimize a neoliberal hegemony of global competition and capitalist expansionism. The dialogue in the play presents an alternative conversation about the role of school science education amidst the sudden adoption of STEM. This conversation begins by examining the positivist assumption of STEM as societal salvation through the example of STEM in the invention, development, and deployment of new technologies, such as solar panels. The play then closely interrogates STEM as a curriculum orientation, shifting in the final act to possibilities for a different focus for science education curriculum development that includes interrogation and resistance to neoliberalism. © 2016 Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
In this article, the authors utilize core ideas from Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the nature of education reform in two river cities. Similar to other cases of education reform in urban districts, the reforms in the two focal cities reflect at least four characteristics in common: (1) a form of portfolio management; (2) the growth of human-capital organizations; (2) the active involvement of philanthropic organizations; and (4) the role of politics. The authors consider these conditions in light of concepts from CRT and argue that this analysis provides insight into the burden of reform in urban schools.
Over the past decade, Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholars in education have produced a significant body of work theorizing the impact of race and racism in education. Critical Race Theory Matters provides a comprehensive and accessible overview of this influential movement, shining its keen light on specific issues within education. Through clear and accessible language, the authors synthesize scholarship in the field, highlight major themes and assumptions, and examine strategies of resistance and practices for challenging the existing inequalities in education. By linking theory to everyday practices in today’s classroom, students will understand how CRT is relevant to a host of timely topics, from macro-policies such as Bilingual Education and Affirmative Action to micro-policies such as classroom management and curriculum. Moving beyond identifying problems into the realm of problem solving, Critical Race Theory Matters is a call to action to put into praxis a radical new vision of education in support of equality and social justice.
The purpose of the study is to examine the performance of Texas-STEM (T-STEM) academies in different regions to determine whether the academic achievement differs according to Education Service Centers (ESC). The ESCs’ goals were to improve the quality of school district programs and to increase student achievement. It was found that there was no statistically significant difference among T-STEM academies’ students’ mathematics mean scores in different ESCs when demographic variables taken into account. African American students’ mathematics mean scores were statistically significantly lower than those of White students in 9th grade; however, Asian students’ growth rate was statistically significantly higher than White students’ growth rate. Male students’ growth rate was statistically significantly higher than female students’ growth rate.
This study was conducted at an innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics high school, providing a rich contextual description of the teaching and learning at the school, specifically focusing on problem solving and inquiry approaches, and students' motivation, social interactions, and collaborative work. Data were collected through interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations, school meetings, school design and planning efforts, student surveys, and student standardized test scores. We saw that the teaching and learning at the school were typically inquiry and problem based and that student motivation, collaboration, and social interactions were strong due to the environment of inquiry and problem-based teaching and learning.
In recent years, policy makers, researchers, and educators have focused on the preparation of individuals in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. One popular policy lever is STEM-focused high schools. The purpose of this study is to identify which student populations have access to STEM secondary schools. By comparing STEM high schools to neighborhood schools and districts, this study finds access to STEM high schools to be unevenly distributed. Among the key findings is that STEM high schools tend to have fewer students from disadvantaged groups than their district averages. Furthermore, I find that African Americans are disproportionately represented in admissions-only STEM high schools. As funding for more STEM high schools is allocated and infused into the system, it is important to identify locations and groups that may benefit and currently lack access to STEM high schools. Decision makers would be wise to place future STEM high schools in areas with high percentages of Latino students who may benefit from these unique programs.
After Brown v. Board of Education was decided, Professor Herbert Wechsler questioned whether the Supreme Court's decision could be justified on the basis of "neutral" principles. To him Brown arbitrarily traded the rights of whites not to associate with blacks in favor of the rights of blacks to associate with whites. In this Comment, Prof. Derrick Bell suggests that no conflict of interest actually existed; for a brief period, the interests of the races converged to make the Brown decision inevitable. More recent Supreme Court decisions, however, suggest to Professor Bell a growing divergence of interests that makes integration less feasible. He suggests the interest of blacks in quality education might now be better served by concentration on improving the quality of existing schools, whether desegregated or all-black.
School choice policy, especially as embedded in No Child Left Behind, assumes that empowering parents with choice will improve education by holding schools accountable and will reenergize democratic participation in public education. While parents are seen as critical change agents, little research documents how engaging in school choice affects parents’ lived experiences as citizens engaged in the democratic process. This 1-year case study based on parent interviews and participant observation at a foreign language immersion magnet school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, suggests that choice works in complex, contradictory ways to both empower and disempower parents as participatory citizens in democratic change and that market-driven school choice situates parents as consumers and thus redefines education as a private rather than a public good. The implications for fulfilling the promises of parent empowerment through school choice are examined.
Present federal education policies promote learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the participation of minority students in these fields. Using longitudinal data on students in Florida and North Carolina, value-added estimates in mathematics and science are generated to categorize schools into performance levels and identify differences in school STEM measures by performance levels. Several STEM-relevant variables show a significant association with effectiveness in mathematics and science, including STEM teacher turnover, calculus and early algebra participation, and mathematics and science instructional indices created from survey items in the data. Surprisingly, a negative association between students' STEM course participation and success in STEM is consistently documented across both states, in addition to low participation of underrepresented minority students in successful schools in STEM.
We investigate the role of specialized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high schools in New York City (NYC) in promoting performance in science and mathematics and in closing the gender and race gaps in STEM subjects. Using administrative data covering several recent cohorts of public school students and a rich variety of high schools including over 30 STEMs, we estimate the effect of attending a STEM high school on a variety of student outcomes, including test taking and performance on specialized science and mathematics examinations. While comparisons of means indicate an advantage to attending a STEM school, more thorough analysis conditioning on a rich set of covariates, including previous grade test performance, reduces or eliminates this advantage. Females and males in STEMs do better than their counterparts in Non-STEMs, but the gender gap is also larger in these schools. We also find that the black-white and Hispanic-white gaps are smaller in STEM relative to Non-STEM schools across almost all outcomes, but the Asian-white gap, in contrast, is larger in STEMs relative to Non-STEMs
We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, grant number 0827484, and helpful comments from Luke Miller, Ryan Yeung, participants at the March 2011 AEFP meetings, the April 2011 NYU IES-PIRT Doctoral Education Seminar, and the November 2011 APPAM meetings.
The critiques of rap artists and other participants in hip‐hop culture provide data for teachers and researchers to investigate the attitudes of US urban youth towards schooling. This study explores the complex relationships between hip‐hop and science education by examining how rap lyrics project beliefs about schooling, the relevance of existing curriculum, and the intellectual capability of urban youth. These lyrics also provide a synopsis of this population’s alienation from schooling and from science education in particular. By examining student discourses in two US high schools, this study shows how co‐generative dialogues, and other classroom procedures derived from hip‐hop culture, may be used to modify teaching and learning in science and to ameliorate urban students’ alienation from schools.
Issues regarding race and racial identity as well as questions pertaining to property rights and ownership have been prominent in much public discourse in the United States. In this article, Professor Harris contributes to this discussion by positing that racial identity and property are deeply interrelated concepts. Professor Harris examines how whiteness, initially constructed as a form of racial identity, evolved into a form of property, historically and presently acknowledged and protected in American law. Professor Harris traces the origins of whiteness as property in the parallel systems of domination of Black and Native American peoples out of which were created racially contingent forms of property and property rights. Following the period of slavery and conquest, whiteness became the basis of racialized privilege - a type of status in which white racial identity provided the basis for allocating societal benefits both private and public in character. These arrangements were ratified and legitimated in law as a type of status property. Even as legal segregation was overturned, whiteness as property continued to serve as a barrier to effective change as the system of racial classification operated to protect entrenched power. Next, Professor Harris examines how the concept of whiteness as property persists in current perceptions of racial identity, in the law's misperception of group identity and in the Court's reasoning and decisions in the arena of affirmative action. Professor Harris concludes by arguing that distortions in affirmative action doctrine can only be addressed by confronting and exposing the property interest in whiteness and by acknowledging the distributive justification and function of affirmative action as central to that task.
This study examined how, in some instances, participation in the
cultural practices of high school science classrooms created
intrapersonal conflict for ethnic minority students. Discourse analysis
of videotaped science classroom activities, lectures, and laboratories
was the primary methodology employed for analyzing students' discursive
identity development. This analysis demonstrated differential
appropriation of science discourse as four significant domains of
discursive identities emerged: Opposition status, Maintenance status,
Incorporation status, and Proficiency status. Students characterized as
Opposition Status avoided use of science discourse. Students who
exhibited Maintenance Status illustrated a commitment to maintaining
their normative discourse behavior, despite a demonstrated ability to
appropriate science discourse. Students characterized as Incorporation
Status made active attempts to incorporate science discourse into their
normative speech patterns, while Proficiency Status students
demonstrated a fluency in applying scientific discursive. Implications
for science education emerging from the study include the illumination
of the need to make the use of specific scientific discourse an explicit
component of classroom curriculum.
The quiet wave of school district secessions
- L Camera
Are STEM high school students entering the STEM pipeline?
- Franco S.