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CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, 1–13, Winter 2023 22:es5, 1
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for why there is a need to re-envision
the underlying culture of undergraduate biology education to ensure the success, retention,
and matriculation of Black students. The basis of this argument is the continued noted chal-
lenges with retaining Black students in the biological sciences coupled with existing research
that implicates science contexts (i.e., the cultural norms, values, and beliefs manifesting
through policies and practices) as being the primary source of the challenges experienced
by Black students that lead to their attrition. In presenting this argument, we introduce the
Re-Envisioning Culture Network, a multigenerational, interdisciplinary network comprised
of higher education administrators, faculty, sta, Black undergraduate students majoring in
biology, Black cultural artists, community leaders, and STEM professionals to work together
to curate and generate resources and tools that will facilitate change. In introducing the
REC Network and disseminating its mission and ongoing endeavors, we generate a clarion
call for educators, researchers, STEM professionals, students, and the broader community to
join us in this endeavor in fostering transformative change.
INTRODUCTION
There exists a body of research that is dedicated to exploring and understanding fac-
tors that influence undergraduate students’ retention and matriculation in Science
Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Chang et al., 2014;
Terrell R. Morton,†* Wesley Agee,‡ Kilan C. Ashad-Bishop,§ Lori D. Banks,ǁ
Zanethia Choice Barnett,¶ Imari D. Bramlett,# Briana Brown,@ Walter Gassmann,#
Korie Grayson,** Gail P. Hollowell,†† Ruth Kaggwa,‡‡ Gaurav S. Kandlikar,#
Marshaun Love,### Whitney N. McCoy,§§ Mark A. Melton,ǁǁ Monica L. Miles,¶¶
Catherine L. Quinlan,## ReAnna S. Roby,@@ Checo J. Rorie,*** Tatiane Russo-Tait,†††
Ashlyn M. Wardin,# Michele R. Williams,† and Ashley N. Woodson‡‡‡
†Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607;
‡Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine,
St. Louis, MO 63110; §Miller School of Medicine & Slyvester Comprehensive Cancer Center,
University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136; ǁDepartment of Biology, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie
View, TX 77446; ¶USDA Forest Service, Oxford, MS 38655; #Division of Plant Sciences and
Technology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211; @Re-Envisioning Culture Network,
Atlanta, GA 30331; **Re-Envisioning Culture Network, Washington, DC 20059; ††Deparmtent of
Biological and Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707;
‡‡Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO 63132; §§Center for Child and Family Policy,
Duke University, Durham, NC 27708; ǁǁDepartment of Biological and Physical Sciences, Saint
Augustine’s University, Raleigh, NC 27610; ¶¶Department of Engineering Education, University
of Bualo, Bualo, NY 14260; ##Curriculum & Instruction, Howard University, Washington,
DC 20059; @@Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240;
*** Department of Biology, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro,
NC 27411; †††Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602;
‡‡‡Institutional Advancement, Albion College, Albion, MI 49224; ###Institute for Informatics,
Data Science & Biostatistics, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, Saint Louis,
MO 63110
Re-Envisioning the Culture of
Undergraduate Biology Education
to Foster Black Student Success:
A Clarion Call
Mark Barsoum, Monitoring Editor
Submitted Sep 13, 2022; Revised Aug 7, 2023;
Accepted Sep 20, 2023
DOI:10.1187/cbe.22-09-0175
*Address correspondence to: Terrell R. Morton
(mortontr@uic.edu).
© 2023 T. R. Morton etal. CBE—Life Sciences
Education © 2023 The American Society for Cell
Biology. This article is distributed by The
American Society for Cell Biology under license
from the author(s). It is available to the public
under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share
Alike 4.0 Unported Creative Commons License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-sa/4.0).
“ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell
Biology®” are registered trademarks of The
American Society for Cell Biology.
CBE Life Sci Educ December 1, 2023 22:es5
ESSAY
22:es5, 2 CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023
T. R. Morton et al.
Riegle-Crumb et al., 2019). Scholars investigating these phenom-
ena note that students from groups that have been historically
and contemporarily excluded due to their social identities (i.e.,
Black Americans, Native Americans, and Latinx populations) are
disproportionately underrepresented and underserved, thereby
having lower retention and matriculation rates (NASEM, 2023).
Studies on undergraduate student retention implicate various
factors that could lead to attrition such as feeling isolated, token-
ism, lack of mentorship, financial resources (Estrada et al., 2016;
Seymour et al., 2019; Turner et al., 2022). When considering the
research specifically focused on Black student retention, particu-
larly within undergraduate biology education (UBE), there are
vexing trends that tell interesting stories.
Despite increases in Black student enrollment in four-year
institutions, increases in Black students’ expressed interest in
majoring in Biological Sciences, and increases in overall Bache-
lor degrees awarded in Biological Sciences, the percentage of
Bachelor’s degrees in Biological Sciences awarded to Black stu-
dents has remained consistently low around 8.5% from 2000 to
2019 (National Science Board, 2022). Here the biological
sciences are defined as programs that attend to the study of
biology and nonclinical biomedical programs. This definition is
based on the National Center for Education Statistics, the source
of the data referenced within the National Science Board report.
Scholars investigating this phenomenon implicate identity
and the culture of the academic environment among the core
concepts that account for the challenges ascertained. Identity
can be defined as how a person names and understand them-
selves within various contexts and among various groups
(Tatum, 1997; Kirk and Okazawa-Rey, 2018). As such, identity,
within the context of this paper, reflects not only how Black
students name themselves (e.g., race, gender, sexuality) but
what those identities mean within society and science contexts
(Morton and Parsons, 2018). This includes how they define and
understand science, science exploration, and science innova-
tion in relationship to how they position themselves.
For example, in exploring the experiences of students enrolled
in an introductory undergraduate biology course at a Historically
Black College and University (HBCU), Quinlan et al. (2021)
delineated the components of self-efficacy and identity that
impacted student persistence. They note that questions related
to culture, expectancy, and whether students saw themselves as
a scientist were important for student persistence. This example
points to the role that institutional and classroom culture play on
students’ persistence. It also acknowledges the role students’ per-
ceptions of their self-efficacy inform their persistence. Self-effi-
cacy is among the various concepts explored when investigating
identity and STEM persistence (Robnett et al., 2015).
Diving deeper into how science, institutional, and classroom
cultures inform Black students’ experiences, scholars report
that science spaces are dominated by white and Asian men,
present as competitive learning environments, and promote
objectivity, individualism, and elitism as core cultural ideals
(McGee and Martin, 2011; Seymour and Hewitt, 1997). These
cultural norms, values, beliefs, and practices reflect a Western,
Eurocentric ideology of science (Harding, 1992; Aikenhead,
2002), the dominating cultural ideology of science that exist.
This dominating culture of science manifests through the aca-
demic environment, including the norms and practices transpir-
ing within classroom, research, and common spaces.
The dominant cultural ideologies of science manifesting
through academic and laboratory spaces directly impact how
Black students perceive and understand their ability to explore
and meaningfully engage in science (Martin-Hansen, 2018;
Morton, 2021). When specifically examining the dominant cul-
tural ideology of science manifesting within the biological sci-
ences, scholars disclose that students may disengage from biol-
ogy due to historical and contemporary ways in which biology
has been motivated by and used to promote anti-Black ideas
such as evolutionary biology and genetics as a justification for
eugenics and race superiority (Brown and Mutgei, 2010;
Graves, 2019).
Scholars note that within STEM spaces, Black students per-
ceive their identity (e.g., race, race–gender, ethnicity, culture)
to constitute strength and resilience given the culture of STEM
(e.g., norms, practices, beliefs, and values) that situates them as
deficient, inferior, and renders alienating and isolating learning
environments for them (Morton and Parsons, 2018; Miles et al.,
2020). Black students’ identity, their understandings of them-
selves as Black, shapes and informs their thoughts and behav-
iors about their participation and engagement within science
courses and labs, where their perceptions of the science class-
room culture inform their identity conceptualizations (Morton
et al., 2019). Given the existing statistical and ontological data
about Black student experiences, and our collective desires to
foster racially just science learning environments for Black stu-
dents, in this paper we present an argument for analyzing and
readdressing the dominant cultural ideology of science mani-
festing within UBE.
Critiquing the culture of the biological sciences and its impli-
cations for Black student experiences and outcomes, we argue,
can lead to a re-envisioning of this culture and a deeper inclu-
sion and improved retention of Black students. We propose that
focusing on these cultural aspects necessitates a fundamental
reorientation of efforts aimed at improving Black student expe-
riences as existing programs focused on perceived deficiencies
of students and operating with incremental and additive mea-
sures have shown limited efficacy. Additionally, accounting for
scholarship that unpacks the racialized, politicized, and milita-
rized approaches to science (e.g., Vossoughi and Vakil, 2018;
Vakil and Ayers, 2019), we propose that focusing on re-envi-
sioning the culture of science can lead toward science educa-
tion, praxis, and innovation that advances a justice-oriented
public good (e.g., McGee, 2020). As steps towards our goal, we
first leverage anti-Blackness (Dumas and Ross, 2016) to articu-
late how the culture of the biological sciences is anti-Black. We
then describe the establishment and purpose of the Re-Envi-
sioning Culture network and how we see the work coming from
this space helping to address anti-Blackness in biology by re-en-
visioning culture and praxis. We then end with a clarion call to
our colleagues, presenting ideas for how they too can join us in
this endeavor to re-envision the culture of science as a strategy
for fostering Black students’ success and holistic well-being.
WHY REENVISION THE CULTURE OF
UNDERGRADUATE BIOLOGY FOR BLACK STUDENTS
Given the current and future socio-political context of learners,
teachers, and overall society, it is worth noting how the contin-
ued perpetuation of dominant discourses within the context of
undergraduate biological science is ultimately a disservice for
CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023 22:es5, 3
REC Network
humanity at large. Continuing to privilege and position West-
ern, Eurocentric, white-supremacist science knowledge does
little to fully embrace or make room for diverse learning and
ways of knowing (Mensah and Jackson, 2018). Privileging and
positioning Eurocentric, white-supremacist science knowledge
as the universal way of knowing and doing science has resulted
in stagnation among STEM innovation and possibilities (McGee,
2020). As such, it is not nearly enough to continue to bridge
students into STEM disciplines for the sake of participation, or
to fulfill quotas of diversity (NASEM, 2023). These practices not
only limit the possibilities of STEM, but they also can have neg-
ative impacts on Black students’ success and overall well-being
(Holly and Quigley, 2022; Morton et al., 2019). These actions
are particularly problematic given that Black students’ ways of
knowing and learning are currently not integral to the learning
context in ways that disrupt normative science cultures or
prompt new re-envisioned approaches to learning and the prac-
tice of science (Basile and Lopez, 2015; Quinlan, 2021; Roby
et al., 2022).
Culture of Science
Scholars exploring the experiences of Black students illuminate
the exclusionary culture of science. Culture is defined as the
norms, values, and beliefs of science disciplines as perpetuated
by the structures of science contexts, and as interpreted by sci-
ence participants (Parsons and Carlone, 2013). Science culture
favors and privileges white male students thereby fostering
alienating and isolating learning environments for Black stu-
dents (Mutegi, 2013). Science is perceived to be an ideal meri-
tocratic system (Merton, 1957) that is, opportunities are dis-
tributed to all fairly, based on individual effort, talent, and
achievement. Objective measures of performance and ability in
science tout beliefs or being color- or identity-blind (Russo-Tait,
2022). However, this perspective does not consider systemic
oppression and how it differentially operates on individuals
given differences in their race, gender, and other social identi-
ties (Harding, 2008; Bonilla Silva, 2014).
Scholars argue that scientists undergo a process of socializa-
tion that supports the development of specific ontological and
epistemological standpoints that facilitate the formation of
these beliefs (Aikenhead, 1996; Carlone and Johnson, 2007).
For example, the ontological position of objectivity, combined
with the epistemological valuing of “the scientific method”,
allows for scientists to believe that, if they are objective in rela-
tion to their experimental studies, they are equally as objective
in their treatment of people (Posselt, 2020). But, of course, sci-
entists are people and are just as vulnerable to hegemonic mes-
sages about who is smart and who can succeed, especially in
science. And research abounds on how anti-Blackness and rac-
ism occurs in STEM spaces (e.g., Bullock, 2017; Cedillo, 2018;
Le and Matias, 2019).
Science is not color-blind, nor objective or apolitical
(Harding, 1994; Atwater et al., 2013). Further, imposing col-
or-blind ideals work to erase diverse identities, cultures, and
lived experiences, and positions white middle-class experiences
as “universal” (Bonilla Silva, 2014; Dunac and Demir, 2017).
This approach creates the expectation that those from
non-white backgrounds and cultures must assimilate to white,
Eurocentric standards to successfully navigate science spaces
(Morton and Nkrumah, 2021; Wright and Riley, 2021). In this
way, Black students are unable to bring their authentic selves
into science spaces and must code-switch and manage stereo-
types to persist (McGee, 2016). The science ethos of individual-
ism and competition further excludes Black students, as research
notes that Black students value collaboration and tend to
explore postsecondary science given altruistic or equity-focused
goals (Garibay, 2015; McGee and Bentley, 2017; Morton et al.,
2019). Black students who are passionate about science because
they hope to use it as a tool to give back and support their com-
munities are then discouraged from pursuing and remaining in
science (Garibay, 2015; McGee and Bentley, 2017).
Black Student Experiences in Science
Black student experiences in UBE have both changed and
remained the same over the years. The determining factor that
has influenced the extent to which Black student experiences
have shifted but yet remained the same is racism and the dis-
criminatory practices that occur because of it. Historically, rac-
ism has operated in explicit and direct mechanisms to regulate
Black student experiences in science (Brown and Mutegi, 2010;
Parsons, 2014). This includes perpetuating beliefs that Black
people were inferior and incapable of engaging science learning
and research and therefore discrediting their research (Graves,
2019; Prescod-Weinstein, 2020) as well as explicit forms of seg-
regation that restricted Black people’s access to high-quality
educational resources that could be used to explore and under-
stand the natural world. Such explicit forms of racism have led
to Black students being prevented from studying science, not
having access to the necessary resources that support full sci-
ence engagement, and enduring hostile, toxic, and traumatiz-
ing experiences within science learning spaces (McGee and
Bentley, 2017; Cedillo, 2018).
Contemporarily, we find the same outcomes for Black stu-
dents in science; what differs is how racism manifests within
science learning spaces. Racism in science manifests through
both overt actions and covert or subtle actions often noted as
racial microaggressions (McGee, 2016). These actions include
belittling jokes, being ignored by peers, being falsely accused of
cheating, or being laughed at by professors (Madden et al.,
2019; McGee, 2020). Racial microaggressions appear within
science spaces through enacted policies and cultural practices
that make it so that Black students must prove their intellectual
abilities, and science capabilities to their peers and professors to
demonstrate that they too are scientists (Grossman and Porche,
2013; Miles et al., 2019). This experience prompts feelings of
disconnection and a lack of belonging in science for Black stu-
dents (Leath and Chavous, 2018; Jones, 2019).
Black students frequently express being disconnected and a
lack of belonging from science for several reasons: being ren-
dered invisible, having their voices silenced, and being alienated
by their peers, professors, and other professionals (Solorzano
et al., 2000; Carlone and Johnson, 2007; Dortch and Patel,
2017). Black students feel invisible within science when the
content presented in their science classes do not reflect their
interests, realities, or communities (Leyva et al., 2022). Invisibil-
ity also occurs through faculty members’ pedagogical practice as
Black students are often overlooked within scientific discussions
(Malone and Barabino, 2009). Black students’ interactions with
non-Black peers also prompt feelings of alienation and isolation
as many Black students disclose that non-Black students avoid
22:es5, 4 CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023
T. R. Morton et al.
sitting next to them or do not choose them to be their partners
on group work (Morton et al., 2019; Miles et al., 2020). In the
instances when Black students do work with non-Black students
in groups, Black students find their voices being silenced within
groupwork, as peers often refuse to meaningfully engage them
or consider their perspectives within shared assignments (Green
et al., 2019; Morton et al., 2019). Black students also feel
silenced when their ideas are not appropriately scaffolded by
faculty within classroom discourse on science topics.
Overall, these experiences function as stressors for Black stu-
dents, positioning science and science learning environments as
racially hostile and traumatizing (Morton et al., 2019; Watkins
and McGown, 2022). As a result of these experiences, Black
students’ current success in STEM is predicated upon the vari-
ous coping mechanisms they engage to navigate their STEM
spaces (McGee and Martin, 2011; Brown et al., 2016; Ferguson
and Martin-Dunlap, 2021). These coping mechanisms require
additional effort and energy on their part to endure the various
challenges that they face.
Institutional Dierences
In considering Black student experiences within undergraduate
science learning environments, it is important to acknowledge
the role of the institutional context. Research on or including
Black students may draw from Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCU) or Predominantly White Institutions (PWI)
settings. There is an emerging body of scholarship that explores
Black student STEM experiences as Hispanic Serving Institu-
tions (Choi et al., 2023).
Scholars who specifically focus on HBCU contexts discuss
the various forms of social and cultural capital that an HBCU
learning environment offers Black STEM students (Toldson,
2018; Morton, 2021). As well, scholars investigate how these
spaces influence Black students’ persistence and decision-mak-
ing (Quinlan et al., 2021; Williams & Taylor, 2022). This
includes but is not limited to racially affirming learning spaces,
faculty, and support staff who employ ethics of care, and like-
self peers who offer strong social networks (Perna et al., 2010;
Morton, 2021). While HBCUs are reported to offer these
resources and more, scholars also note the various challenges
Black students experience at HBCUs given limited resources,
politics of respectability, and generalist presumptions about
Black identity and Black student needs given beliefs about a
universal, monolithic Black experience (Toldson, 2018, 2019).
Despite the varied experiences, HBCUs are still responsible for
almost half of Black STEM graduates, 24% of STEM bachelor’s
degrees, 25% of Black biology undergraduates, and approxi-
mately 30% of Black STEM doctoral degrees (Toldson, 2018;
Wondwossen, 2020; Graham, 2021; NSF, 2023). HBCU’s have
effectively served a large portion of the United States’ Black
professionals, cultivating a lasting culture that has been shown
to be extremely successful in producing some of the nation’s
most prominent minds. Furthermore, HBCUs are the only
higher education institutions in the United States whose mis-
sions and plans were designed with the expressed goal of meet-
ing the needs of Black people.
Researchers exploring Black student STEM experiences at
PWIs outline the various challenges and traumas they face,
associating these experiences with overt and covert forms of
racism that manifest (McGee, 2016; McPherson, 2017; Rankin
and Thomas, 2020). Black students are reported to experience
alienation, isolation, invisibility, and hypervisibility within their
learning experiences (Hurtado et al., 2007; Winkle-Wagner and
McCoy, 2016). Such experiences prompt Black students to
engage in various coping and resistance strategies to mitigate
or combat the experienced hostility (McGee and Martin, 2011;
Morton et al., 2019). These strategies vary from creating or par-
ticipating in counter-spaces, spaces designed with the specific
intention of elevating and empowering Black students, to
engaging various forms of help-seeking behaviors such as pur-
suing external mentorship or relying on family and peer net-
works (Ortiz et al., 2019; Stanton et al., 2022). Scholars
invested in Black student success at PWIs note the various struc-
tural changes and programmatic supports necessary to facili-
tate and promote Black students’ well-being (Lane, 2016).
Summary
Taken together, the existing scholarship that investigates Black
student experiences in STEM, science, or biology, more specifi-
cally attend to the challenges and sources of support present
within their learning experiences. These challenges and sources
of support and their impact on Black students’ decisions, behav-
iors, and outcomes are connected to structural and systemic
racism or gendered racism manifesting through the culture of
science and the various institutional contexts. Given our posi-
tion as the REC Network and our goals to re-envision the cul-
ture and context of UBE for Black students, we take a critical
approach to examining the existing research on Black student
experiences. Our critical approach is informed by anti-Black-
ness (Dumas and Ross, 2016) as a conceptual framework.
Leveraging this perspective, we attend to how the culture and
praxis of science in undergraduate biology foster realities that
promote Black suffering and trauma. In framing Black student
experiences in undergraduate biology through an anti-Black
ideology, we present an opportunity for the biological science
community to both see and target for change the existing per-
spectives and practices that promote a detrimental impact to
Black students’ learning, engagement, success, and overall
well-being.
LEVERAGING ANTIBLACKNESS TO CRITICALLY
EXAMINE UNDERGRADUATE BIOLOGY EDUCATION
Existing research indicates that the culture of science privileges
and favors white male students given that the culture of science
is rooted in a culture of whiteness (Bullock, 2017; Le and
Matias, 2019; Prescod-Weinstein, 2020). Whiteness, as a cul-
tural phenomenon, attends to how the concepts of normality
and the associating beliefs and practices that continually refer-
ence or uphold it are based in the fundamental belief that the
white, cis-gendered, able-bodied, middle to high class man,
their way of life, and their understanding of reality, is the pre-
sumed standard (Wright and Riley, 2021). In noting the spe-
cific implications of whiteness and oppression on the Black
body and Black experiences, scholars generated anti-Blackness
as a conceptual framework to focus on Black existence and the
degree to which structural oppression intentionally targets
Blackness (Hartman, 2007; Dumas and Ross, 2016).
Anti-Blackness is defined as the “embodied lived experience
of social suffering and resistance… in which the Black [body]
is a despised thing-in-itself (but not person for herself or him-
CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023 22:es5, 5
REC Network
self) in opposition to all that is pure, human(e), and white”
(Dumas and Ross, 2016). As a framework, anti-Blackness
attends to how Blackness is regulated as not only other but
anti-human, demonstrating how structural, social, and
interpersonal processes and practices perpetuate the social,
emotional, psychological, and physical suffering and death of
those who inhabit Black bodies (Cedillo, 2018). As a frame-
work, anti-Blackness has been used to examine K–12 STEM
(Cedillo, 2018; Morton et al., 2022), K–12 mathematics educa-
tion (Martin, 2019), postsecondary engineering education
(Holly, 2020), postsecondary STEM (King et al., 2023) as well
as science teacher education (Madkins and Morton, 2021). We
extend this body of research by leveraging anti-Blackness to
evaluate UBE.
Using anti-Blackness as a framework to analyze Black stu-
dents’ experiences in UBE in relation to the culture and context
of UBE, we note the anti-Black epistemology of science that has
facilitated the physical suffering and death of Black people. For
example, the belief that Black people are not human justified
the experimentations done on the Anarcha, Betsy and Lucy for
the sake of gynecology, the stealing of Henrietta Lacks’ cell, as
well as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment (e.g., Washington,
2006). These practices, though conducted generations ago, still
govern scientific practices, key procedures implemented, and
understandings of Black pain tolerance, health crises, and needs
that inform how the biological sciences are translated into
practice.
Anti-Black science epistemology has also supported the psy-
chological and social suffering and death of Black people as
governing perspectives of what counts as science, what counts
as scientific practices, and who are recognized as legitimate sci-
entists continue to reject Afrocentric and Indigenous ways of
knowing, doing, and being, thereby attempting to dictate how
Black people must think, do, and be within and outside of the
context of science (e.g., Walls, 2016; Menon, 2021; Morton
et al., 2022). These practices have direct implications on the
content taught in undergraduate biology, the policies gener-
ated to control access to necessary resources (e.g., scholarships,
undergraduate research experiences), and other concepts as
they inform metrics of success that are generated including
what performance indicators and behaviors communicate that
a student is capable of engaging in the biological sciences.
These are but a few examples of anti-Black epistemologies
embedded within the context and culture of UBE and how they
inform the concepts of normality and standards that Black stu-
dents have to contend within these spaces. Through anti-Black-
ness as a framework, we expose the insidious nature of UBE
culture and praxis and its implications for Black student experi-
ences and outcomes. This perspective reveals the severity of the
trauma imposed on Black students; a perspective that would
require scholars and practitioners to look beyond diversity and
inclusion practices to engage Black students given the deeply
entrenched disdain for Black bodies within UBE culture.
In noting these examples, and their explicit connection to
anti-Blackness, efforts looking to ensure the success of Black
students in UBE must directly address anti-Blackness in science
culture. It is also important to unearth anti-Blackness in UBE so
that through the re-envisioning process, we not only redress the
traumatic culture, but we also ensure that we build towards a
UBE culture that advances a justice-oriented, collective public
good. Building a culture with this in mind ensures that UBE
learning spaces, outcomes, and scientific innovations do not
recreate oppression and trauma. To engage this work, we both
represent and propose a multigenerational, interdisciplinary
network dedicated to re-envisioning the culture of UBE by spec-
ifying Blackness in its holistic, heterogenous form. Having
established this space through the Re-Envisioning Culture Net-
work, we work to advance our mission through disseminating
our vision, putting out a clarion call to the field of biology edu-
cation to join us in this endeavor. It is important to note that
this is just the beginning of the re-envisioning process led by the
REC Network. As we continue to delineate our positioning and
conceptual framework in subsequent works and as the network
grows, we strive to deepen and expand our ideas and impact.
WHO ARE WE?
Positionality is used as a term, or point of reference, to share how
people view and interpret social worlds, and in turn, how said
worlds impact people’s perspectives and decisions. Being cogni-
zant of and upfront about one’s position, supports a deeper under-
standing of how systems of privilege and oppression influence
research and work (Jacobson and Mustafa, 2019). Positionality is
both self-determined and socially regulated, being influenced by
multiple factors, including but not limited to race, gender, age,
class, citizenship, etc., and ultimately affects how people interpret
the society and are subsequently interpreted by society (Day,
2012; Ridgeway and Yerrick, 2018). As such, we take a moment
to name the collective positionality of the Re-Envisioning Culture
Network (REC Network) and its approach towards addressing
the issues of Black student retention in UBE. To do so, we consider
the vast individual positionalities represented within the REC
Network, as it is a space comprised of individuals from varying
backgrounds.
The REC Network was established through a National
Science Foundation funded project (NSF #2018532). To build
the network, members of the leadership team developed a
multi-fold recruitment strategy that included leveraging exist-
ing individual connections, open recruitment through social
media platforms, and snowball methods. Invitations sent
through these various means indicated the purpose of the REC
Network–seeking to explore strategies for redressing Black
students’ retention in UBE by attending to science culture–and
an open invitation to participate in the think tank and subse-
quent activities that followed. Those who elected to join the
network expressed commitments to its mission and purpose.
From this perspective, members of the network, though con-
stituting diverse individual positionalities, coalesce in solidar-
ity towards a shared, collectivist political goal (Miles et al.,
2019).
The REC Network is a group of diverse individuals across
higher education institutions, STEM careers, K–12 education,
Black cultural spaces, the arts, and the broader community.
Collectively, we represent a group who strives to enhance Black
undergraduate students’ STEM experiences and outcomes in
and beyond the biological sciences. Banks (1998) notes that it
is important to consider our lives and values as researchers and
provides us with a framework that highlights individual values
in relation to the culture we are studying. Banks’ (1998) work
focuses on multiculturalism. Though the REC Network is not
situated within a multicultural perspective, it is comprised of a
22:es5, 6 CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023
T. R. Morton et al.
diverse group of individuals (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexu-
ality, religion, political ideology, etc.).
In recognizing the vast individual positionalities that have
come together to advance a collective positionality that specifi-
cally attends to enhancing Black experiences and outcomes, we
use this framework to unpack individual positionalities within
the network and the collective positionality of the REC Net-
work. Thus, Banks’ (1998) work offers a framework that
enables us as a network to consider how we identify in relation
to examinations of Black identity and Blackness particularly
within the UBE context. The intricacies of our individual rela-
tionship to Blackness informs our collective approach to nam-
ing and addressing anti-Blackness. More specifically, some peo-
ple within the network maintain deep, collective perspectives of
Blackness where they see themselves as political agents of the
Black community striving for Black liberation. Others within
the network do not identify as Black but see themselves as
coconspirators for Black liberation. Some identify as Black but
maintain an individualistic approach to Black success.
The REC Network is primarily comprised of individuals who
self-identify as Black, as well as individuals who identify as
Indigenous, Indian, Latinx, and white. All members of the REC
Network are openly invested in the success of Black UBE stu-
dents. Members of the REC Network come from a variety of
professional backgrounds including undergraduate and gradu-
ate students, postdoctoral scholars, social science faculty, STEM
faculty, STEM professionals, administrators, K–12 educators,
Black cultural artists, and Black community leaders and activ-
ists. Sixty-nine percent of the REC Network is students, with
74% of them undergraduates. Among network members,
approximately 33% are first-generation college students. The
network includes members from 22 different U.S. states, with
Mississippi, North Carolina, and Missouri most represented. Our
membership includes members from across the socioeconomic
spectrum, with 58% of members belonging to the middle class.
In recognizing the vast backgrounds of members of the REC
Network, our collective positionality considers the multiple fac-
ets of Black heritage and culture shared among members of the
REC Network, as well as perspectives completely external to
the Black experience. As such, members of the REC network
identify as indigenous-insiders, external-insiders, and exter-
nal-outsiders to Blackness writ large (Banks, 1998) as well as
to Blackness within the context of undergraduate biology.
Members also identify as outsiders who stand in solidarity with
Blackness.
Indigenous-insiders are people who “endorses the unique
values, perspectives, behaviors, beliefs, and knowledge” associ-
ated with their determined community (p. 7). They are people
that both perceived themselves to be members of the commu-
nity, as well as being recognized by others both within and
external to the community as a legitimate member (Banks,
1998). Indigenous-outsiders are people “socialized within the
cultural community but has experienced high levels of desocial-
ization and cultural assimilation into an outside or oppositional
culture” (Banks, 1998). External-insiders are people who are
socialized within a community, but given their own experiences
and perspectives have decided to reject aspects of their cultural
identity and practices. To demonstrate some of the perspec-
tives, we present a few narratives as examples of the network
membership.
Blackness and Black identity hold different meanings to dif-
ferent people, even for those considered to be indigenous-insid-
ers to Blackness and Black identity. Not all indigenous insiders
identify as Black first. Some view Blackness as a forced identity
and others as a source of power. For example, one researcher
identified as a middle-class PhD-educated African American
male who originated from a low socioeconomic background, a
first-generation college student who was a product of a single
teenage mother and raised by his grandparents in a rural con-
servative town in North Carolina. In this case, Black and African
American are seen as related yet distinct regarding terminology
applied. He used his experiences as motivation to succeed and
to overcome low expectations, and this empowered him to
mentor and advise those from his community to set goals that
can also help them to overcome the burdens placed on people
like him from society.
Other members who viewed themselves as indigenous-insid-
ers within the Black community often feel as external-outsiders
within the science community. While they are proud African
Americans, they feel as if their identities place greater burdens
on them within the science community. One scientist grew up
in the southeastern (SE) United States (US) and is a minority
on two fronts (race and sex) in both the field of biology and in
the SE US. While conducting field work in the SE US, she is
often privileged to work in some of the most pristine natural
environments, but also faced with some of the most hostile
social environments. These environments shaped where and
when she conducted research, and how her research was per-
ceived by others in the field. Another REC Network member
identifies as an educated, working, middle class, African Amer-
ican female. She was raised in a single parent home and comes
from a low socio-economic background. She obtained both her
B.S. and M.Ed. from predominantly White institutions. During
her time at these institutions, she experienced imposter syn-
drome and adapted by code-switching (e.g., changing our lan-
guage and mannerism to be more Eurocentric). Both members’
experiences connect them with marginalized biology students
who share similar experiences.
The meaning and importance of Blackness also changes
throughout our lives. One indigenous-insider views herself as a
science education researcher with cross-cultural experiences
that has caused her to reflect on, address, and redefine what
Blackness means to her at different stages of her life. In hind-
sight, as an American of Afro-Caribbean descent her Blackness
was fully centered. In that culture she never identified herself
as Black because Black was perceived as a color and not a racial
identity group. However, border crossing into an environment
where whiteness rather than Blackness was valued lead to an
identity crisis where her previous definition of herself was con-
strained and a new definition related to Blackness was forced
upon her. She moved from an area where diversity among
Black people was the norm, to a Western environment where
all were relegated to one descriptor and diversity among Black
people was less appreciated. Another external-insider identifies
as a middle-class white immigrant. As an immigrant to the US
without any formal schooling within the US, he considers edu-
cating himself about the discrepancies between the often-sani-
tized version of U.S. history and actual experiences of minori-
tized population, which he believes is one of the important
parts of developing an identity and responsibility as a U.S.
CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023 22:es5, 7
REC Network
citizen. Participating in the REC Network has given him the
unique opportunity to connect, learn, and contribute to rectify-
ing the burdens placed on marginalized biology students.
These examples provided demonstrate the vastness of posi-
tions existing within the REC Network, and how people with
different perspectives of Blackness, including those who do not
identify as Black, came together to explore and address issues
related to Black student experiences in undergraduate biology.
Through various activities and events, the REC Network strives
to address the issue of retaining Black students in undergradu-
ate biology by proposing and enacting strategies that transform
the culture of undergraduate biology (i.e., the norms, values,
beliefs, ideologies, and practices) rather than focusing on strat-
egies to transform Black students. The REC network focuses on
identifying the culture of UBE, examining the influence of UBE
culture on Black students’ engagement and persistence given
their identity, and pinpointing elements of UBE culture to trans-
form and enhance Black students’ retention in UBE to gradua-
tion and beyond. This is influenced by our own perceptions,
connectedness, and the value we assign to Blackness.
REENVISIONING THE CULTURE: A CALL TO ACTION
The Black Lives Matter movement and disproportionate impacts
of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a global awareness of
issues pertaining to the Black community in the United States.
The long-term impacts of systemic and societal racism are fully
entrenched in every field, particularly STEM disciplines,
prompting the need for individuals to reflect on their position-
ality, role, and responsibly to dismantle oppressive structures.
Regardless of where an individual is currently located in their
journey towards critical consciousness pertaining to Black
engagement and existence within science, everyone should put
forward effort to grow. Rationalizing the status quo through
either antagonistic actions or by-stander mindsets normalizes
and perpetuates oppression. As critical race theorists have
reminded us, racism will evolve and reinvent itself to maintain
and preserve white supremacy (Miles et al., 2019; Holly and
Masta, 2021; Morton, 2022). This presents the urgency for an
equally robust response towards racism, which cannot be done
alone, it must be a collective effort. Racial solidarity towards
dismantling white supremacy is essential (Miles et al., 2019).
Morton and colleagues (2022) proposed guiding principles
for advancing Black liberation in K–12 science education that
we will draw upon and adapt to share tangible next steps for
re-envisioning the culture of UBE to foster Black students’ suc-
cess. These principles speak to the efforts an individual can put
in place within various educational settings such as a classroom,
laboratory, or journal club. We combine these principles with
the specific recommendations from Basile and Black (2019) to
outline collective actions that can be implemented in group set-
tings (i.e., departments, colleges, universities, professional asso-
ciations) to advance the re-envisioning process. We specifically
attend to the individual and the collective as we believe that
systemic, cultural change requires a critical, systems thinking
approach that focuses on individual consciousness raising and
action coupled with collectivist, strategic action (Kezar, 2018).
The recommendations we offer correspond with two overarch-
ing ideas–work that individuals should take on by themselves
and work that people should do together as a collective. As
such, Table 1 presents the outline of our recommendations as
they correspond with the two overarching proposed ideas.
Individual Consciousness Raising and Action
Tasks specific to an individual’s consciousness and action
involve: 1) building from a perspective of Black undergraduate
students’ brilliance, 2) acknowledging the pervasiveness of
anti-Black racism and its implications for Black students’ expe-
riences, 3) embracing the diversity of Blackness, 4) meaning-
fully integrating Black realities and ways of knowing within the
learning space, and 5) fostering racial solidarity.
Black undergraduate students are brilliant. This statement is
a fact, not to be proven or challenged, but believed and
accepted. This statement and belief stems from a critical,
strengths-based mindset about Black students (e.g., Harper,
2010) that focuses on what Black students bring to the learning
environment rather than what they lack. Beginning with Black
students as brilliant counters rhetoric and narratives of them
being “underprepared,” “not engaged,” “at-risk,” and all of the
other colorful ways that people reinforce deficit mindsets about
Black people and their capabilities. This means Black students
should be approached from a mindset that they are already
innovative and come from a lineage of innovators and creators.
Blackness is beautiful; it has and continues to influence the
entire world and what we understand as human life.
Beginning with a perspective that Black students are bril-
liant requires faculty and instructors to maintain and employ a
pedagogical style that embraces and refutes the realty of
anti-Blackness in the U.S. and western, Eurocentric science–the
main form of science taught in most undergraduate biology
courses across the country. Faculty and instructors must con-
tend with their current role and responsibility within the exist-
ing anti-Black system, and put forth consistent, intentional,
conscious effort to combat anti-Blackness. Powell and
colleagues (2021) provide a model in which student affairs
practitioners can leverage critical race theory to enhance their
TABLE 1. Recommendations for Re-Envisioning the Culture of UBE
Individual Consciousness Raising and Action
Believe that Black Undergraduate Students are Brilliant
Diversify Blackness
Appreciate Black Student Contributions
Foster Racial Solidarity
Collectivist Strategies
Engage and Adopt a Shared Critical, Strengths-Based Framework
Establish Reimagined Community Norms, Rules, and Regulations Based on the Critical, Strengths-Based Framework
22:es5, 8 CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023
T. R. Morton et al.
practices and interactions with marginalized students. This
model suggests that practitioners embrace racial realism (i.e.,
that racism is real and permanent), explore their positionality,
raise their critical consciousness, and engage in dialogic action
to drive change.
We adapt a model that shares with and expects biology
faculty and instructors to embrace the fact that anti-Blackness is
real and exists both within U.S. society and the cultural prac-
tices of western, Eurocentric science. Faculty must explore their
own belief systems and cultural values, recognizing how they
have been socialized within a system of anti-Blackness and the
role that they have played to-date in perpetuating its deleteri-
ous effects. In practice, this would reflect faculty engaging with
materials that support deep exploration of their identities,
power, privileges, and biases. One resource often used within
educational research is Milner (2007)’s structured questions for
determining what is seen, unseen, and unforeseen when it
comes to engaging research with race. Similarly, Jacobson and
Mustafa (2019) offer a social identity mapping tool for explor-
ing one’s positionality. As well, Morton (2023) points to a
“sphere of influence” that individuals maintain that requires
individuals to consider the power and privilege they maintain
and how they can use said power and privilege to enact change.
As the REC Network, we engage various reflexive activities that
prompt individuals to think deeply about who they are, how
they are showing up to this space, what power and privilege do
they maintain when it comes to enhancing Black student expe-
riences and how they can use that power to coincide with the
mission of the network.
Harro (2018) outlines a “cycle of socialization” that dis-
cusses how one can come to understand reality and contribute
to the same reality through their actions juxtaposed to the var-
ious external influences that shape one’s experience. To break
free of the cycle, one must be consistent, intentional, and con-
scious with their decisions and actions to continuously learn
about the plight, experiences, and desires of Black people, uti-
lizing their power to work in tandem with the community to
effect change. Consistent, intentional, conscious effort within
the classroom space includes, but is not limited to 1) designing
course content around anchor phenomena that are specifically
relevant to Black people, 2) incorporating contributions from
Black scientists within courses readings, problems, and solu-
tions, 3) presenting the scientific concepts and ideas discussed
in class as a form of cultural practice that is one way of knowing
science versus the only way to know and do science, 4) cocon-
structing classroom norms, policies, and practices on things
such as classroom participation, classroom attendance or pres-
ence, classroom accountability measures, and 5) creating
assignments that allows students to bring in their funds of
knowledge, cultural backgrounds, and language to augment
classroom discussions and understandings (Collins, 2021;
Quinlan, 2021; Morton et al., 2022).
The diversity of Blackness. Contextualize Blackness in ways
that acknowledge, value, and embrace the vast histories and
experiences of Black people across the African Diaspora. As we
demonstrated within our positionality statement, Blackness,
describing how people embrace and engage their racial iden-
tity, encompasses individuals with varying perspectives about
what is considered Black and how one understands their self as
Black. This includes Black people of different ethnic back-
grounds, cultural identities, as well as sociopolitical perspec-
tives. Generalist assumptions that “all Black people look alike”
or that “all Black people are the same” perpetuate anti-Black
racist ideologies and outcomes. Maintaining a heterogenous
perspective of Blackness coincides with the CRT tenet of anti-es-
sentialism (Patton, 2015), an underlying framework for the
Powell and colleagues (2021) model.
Embracing Black as rich and heterogenous within biology
teaching and learning ensures that Black perspectives of and
contributions to science from ancient and modern Africa are
included (Van Sertima, 1983) as well as historical and mod-
ern-day Black scientists from different backgrounds (Quinlan,
2020). A diversity of Blackness also supports funds of knowl-
edge, as local and community Black scientists who are often not
regarded as such, nor recognized and appreciated for their
innovations and approaches to understanding and engaging the
natural world.
Appreciate Black student contributions. Critically examine
department and classroom practices that stifle the voices and
innovation of Black students. DeCuir-Gunby and colleagues
(2022) usage of critical race mixed methods to examine the
Black college students’ experiences with racial microaggres-
sions and belonging, calls for understanding how race impacts
collegiate classroom practices. This can be done by conducting
climate investigations that use surveys, interviews, and focus
groups to understand the complexity of Black students’ experi-
ences. And most important, the findings should be used to
develop strategies for change if they are not favorable, as well
as remove and rewrite policies (explicit and implicit) that com-
pare and contrast Black students to each other and other
groups. Eliminate competition and the drive for individual
engagement and achievement because they lead to exclusion
and only unfavorable outcomes for Black students.
Arday and colleagues (2021) shares that although there is
opposition to decolonizing pedagogical practices in university
spaces, we must not allow these “gatekeepers to maintain a
monopoly on the types of knowledge to be proffered” (p. 310).
Successful environments for Black students in higher education
center aspects of their culture and address biases they may face
while making Black contributions in classrooms and provide
mentorship (Williams et al., 2021). Same-race peer groups in
these environments can aid in positive racial identity and
increase belonging and visibility (Thelamour et al., 2019).
Therefore, fostering a space that decolonizes educational prac-
tices that are rooted in power, privilege, and whiteness allows
us to embrace communal and collective learning, development,
and assessment. This can be initiated by including students in
the process of curriculum transformation. Students must learn
how to work together in racial solidarity, regardless of their
race, gender, and citizenship status. This is an area that typi-
cally goes unaddressed by most undergraduate programs.
Foster racial solidarity. Racial solidarity focuses on building
relationships with others who are not of the same racial iden-
tity, to support actions that focus on dismantling systemic
oppression and white supremacist ideologies and practices as it
effects one specific raced-group (Miles et al., 2019). Racial
solidarity thus means leveraging one’s privilege, power, and
CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023 22:es5, 9
REC Network
platform to enhance the outcomes of another raced group. Fos-
tering racial solidarity can occur through various forms of advo-
cacy and support. What matters most in racial solidarity, partic-
ularly for supporting Black people given the ideals espoused by
the REC Network, is that one must be cognizant of their identi-
ties and associated power and privileges, and use that power
and privilege to advance the goals and missions outlined by the
collective Black community.
Racial solidarity in this context does not mean that non-
Black individuals can make uniform or unilateral decisions
about how to support Black students. As well, racial solidarity
does not mean that non-Black individuals must be silent and
cannot share opinions. Instead, it means that non-Black individ-
uals recognize the power and privilege afforded to them by
white supremacy and use that power and privilege to advance
Black liberation, as defined by the collective Black community.
The goal is for racial solidarity to promote structural, systemic
change that facilitates growth, strength, sufficient resources,
and independence among Black people in ways that ensure
Black people can maintain their distinctive identities, cultures,
and values. It is through collective efforts that racial solidarity
erodes the presence and power of white supremacy in under-
graduate biology learning environments.
Collectivist Strategies
Collectivist strategies focus on changes to policies, practices,
and “unspoken” norms that govern how someone must show
up and behave to be valued and be a part of the undergraduate
biology community. Promoting collectivist action involves: 1)
grounding the work in a critical, strengths-based conceptual
framework that centers and supports a heterogeneity of Black-
ness, 2) designing and implementing rules, regulations, and
norms for the community to embrace and promote the success
and holistic well-being of Black people.
Critical, strengths-based frameworks. There has been a
recent uptake in asset-based and strengths-based mindsets and
approaches to science teaching and learning. These frameworks
focus on what people have and bring to the table, building from
their strengths versus focusing on what people do not have or
need and attempting to fix or save the person (Wofford and
Gutzwa, 2022). Making a strengths-based or asset-based per-
spective critical requires acknowledging and intentionally com-
batting the systemic and structural oppression that attempts to
marginalize and incapacitate people. Examples of critical
strengths-based frameworks that have been used in STEM edu-
cation research and praxis include Community Cultural Wealth
(e.g., Ortiz et al., 2019; Denton et al., 2020), Funds of Knowl-
edge (e.g., Denton and Borrego, 2021), and culturally relevant,
responsive, and sustaining pedagogies (Mensah and Larson,
2017).
Critical strengths-based frameworks serve as the conceptual
and pragmatic boundaries for all policies, practices, and norms
implemented within individual classrooms (e.g., thinking about
classroom management style, classroom community, classroom
participation and engagement, course assignments) as well as
within departments, colleges, universities, and professional asso-
ciations. As the REC Network, we currently approach our collec-
tivist work using Afrofuturism as a conceptual framework. Afro-
futurism as a framework promotes three core ideas:
1) understanding the multiple truths of the past to ensure a
promising, Afrocentric future, 2) an unapologetic centering of
and focus on Black culture, Black creativity, Black capabilities,
and Black possibilities, and 3) engaging science/speculative fic-
tion, creativity, STEM innovation, and futuristic possibilities
within a context that is Black centric (Womack, 2013). STEM
scholars have discussed the possibilities of leveraging Afrofutur-
ism within STEM teaching and learning, pointing out the
innovative possibilities that can come from people envisioning
a future for Black people that reflects an understanding and
potential deliverance from past and current systemic oppression
(Alexander, 2019; Holbert et al., 2020; McGee and White, 2021).
Community norms, rules, and regulations. Policies, prac-
tices, and the unwritten norms govern communities and societ-
ies. These concepts socialize people into how to operate within
the specific community (Harro, 2018), leading to communi-
ty-specific identities and onto-epistemologies. To redefine the
cultural and community norms, practices, and policies of under-
graduate biology, people must work as a collective–through
racial solidarity efforts–to change the existing departmental,
college, university, and professional associations perspectives
and practices. One of the key concepts that must change is how
these spaces define success as it pertains to understanding and
practicing the forms of knowledge associated with the biologi-
cal sciences. Redefining what constitutes success brings with it
changes to how success is measured, what forms of knowledge
are necessary to demonstrate that someone is successful,
thereby impacting “who” is recognized and hallmarked as a
successful person within the community.
At the departmental level, Weatherton and Schussler (2021)
note that shifting the definitions of success require critical ques-
tions of the frameworks and underlying assumptions that drive
departmental actions and outcomes. From our point of view,
this would entail the department undergoing a series of reflex-
ive activities that require faculty and staff to examine the extent
to which their current policies and practices have resulted in
the holistic well-being of Black students. Holistic well-being
accounts for Black students’ personal, social, emotional, aca-
demic/professional, cultural, and financial comfort and suc-
cess. This examination includes individual introspection, each
individual person’s role and responsibility, as well as the collec-
tive’s approach and outcomes. Beyond identifying the current
departmental state, this process would also then require faculty
and staff to connect these outcomes to the specific policies and
practices implemented, and work to redefine said policies and
practices from a critical, strengths-based framework that
embraces and emboldens Blackness.
To pinpoint some specific areas to target for redefining
through this framework, we draw from Basile and Black (2019).
These authors recommend that STEM departments: move
STEM courses away from rote testing and normal curve grading
toward more authentic models of STEM learning…hire and
retain more Black STEM faculty and staff…create, support, and
continually fund campus-recognized student groups and other
support-based community endeavors for Black STEM students
(Malcolm & Feder, 2016)… rebuild STEM advising models
such that advisors are highly trained in fostering access for mar-
ginalized students, cultural competency, and in acting as an
advocate for students (p. 385-386).
22:es5, 10 CBE—Life Sciences Education • 22:es5, Winter 2023
T. R. Morton et al.
We extend these recommendations by leveraging the per-
spectives of Dupree and Boykin (2021). These scholars empha-
size the need to engage cluster hires and targeted recruitment
strategies for Black faculty and staff, and implementing reten-
tion strategies by providing funding, resources, and mentorship
specific to their academic and social needs, as well as incentiv-
izing research, teaching, and service that focus on uplifting
Black people.
As more departments within specific colleges implement
these practices, the broader culture of higher education will
shift, thereby driving changes to the overall culture of the bio-
logical sciences writ large. Investments from the professional
societies that support biology-based research and practice is
also key to bringing about the cultural shift as professional soci-
eties often set the tone for what kind of scholarship and praxis
is deemed valuable within the overall community. Change
agents in the classroom and department can also be advocates
for collective change efforts within professional societies.
CONCLUSION
In 1964, Malcolm X delivered an address at the founding rally
of the “Organization of Afro-American Unity.” In this speech,
Malcolm outlined the foundational principles and beliefs that
governed this organization, addressing many topics including
education. In this speech, Malcolm states, Education is an
important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the
means to help our children and our people rediscover their
identity and thereby increase their self-respect. Education is our
passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people
who prepare for it today (Blackpast, 2007).
It was his premise that in taking charge of Black education
and being intentional about teaching Black learners their histo-
ries and culture beyond enslavement, the Black community
would be able to ensure a healthy, sustained future. In drawing
from these ideas, we remind the readers that the current state
of UBE is a space that does not situate Blackness, Black people,
or Black possibilities. And while there are efforts put forth to
support equity and inclusion within this space, these strategies
will forever be limited in their ability to advance Black libera-
tion and success because they often try and work within the
existing social, cultural, political boundaries of the discipline
and environment. In efforts to ensure a liberated, Black future,
we must prepare for it today through approaches like re-envi-
sioning the culture of UBE. As such, we hope that others will
join us in this endeavor to drive this change within and across
local and national science contexts.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the many members of the REC-Network
who serve as coconspirators with us in our efforts to combat
anti-Blackness in UBE. These members include undergraduate
students, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, administrators,
community leaders, activists, and more. We are also grateful for
the wisdom offered from Dr. Eileen C. Parsons and Dr. Stephanie
Toliver. Your thoughts and perspectives help guide our work.
This essay was funded by the National Science Foundation,
grant number 2018532. Any opinions, findings, and conclu-
sions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of
the hosts and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.
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