Research Guides: Anti-Black Racism Pedagogical Collection: Support Black Students in STEM

Support Black Students in STEM

This section of the Anti-Black Racism LibGuide was designed to assist faculty, instructors and higher education stakeholders find resources to support Black students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. As educators, we play a vital role in dismantling systemic racism in our institutions and society as a whole. By critically examining our pedagogies, curricula, and classroom dynamics, we can foster learning environments that uplift and centre marginalized voices, challenge dominant narratives, and empower all students to reach their full academic potential.

Resource List:

Each resource category provides relevant information, to assist faculty and instructors in creating a more inclusive STEM environment for Black students. The overall aim of this section of the LibGuide is to address challenges Black students face in STEM and offers ways to promote their success.

Books and Edited Book Chapters

Making Black scientists: A call to action by Gasman, M. & Nguyen T.H.
Call Number: Online Ebook
ISBN: 0674916581
Publication Date: 2019
Historically black colleges and universities are adept at training scientists. Marybeth Gasman and Thai-Huy Nguyen follow ten HBCU programs that have grown their student cohorts and improved performance. These science departments furnish a bold new model for other colleges that want to better serve African American students.

To learn more about this book, give this book review a read:

Riley, D. (2019). Lessons in Black excellence. Making Black Scientists: A Call to Action Marybeth Gasman and Thai-Huy Nguyen Harvard University Press, 2019. 253 pp. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 365(6456), 871–871. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3052

Retaining each other: The power of community for African American women undergraduates in STEM by Gayles, J. G., & Smith, C.
Call Number: Online Edited Book Chapter
ISBN: 9781032484853
Publication Date: 2024
Black women undergraduate students face systemic barriers to success within college environments and persist through their efforts to support and retain themselves and each other. This chapter highlights the experiences of high-achieving undergraduate Black women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at a predominantly white institution using community cultural wealth as a critical lens. This chapter concludes with three lessons for institutional leaders to support and retain Black women in higher education. Embedded within the three lessons are examples of how Black women created supportive peer mentoring communities for themselves and others, with implications for Black women graduate students and faculty.
Interrogating whiteness and relinquishing power: White faculty's commitment to racial consciousness in STEM classrooms by Joseph, N.M., Haynes, C., & Cobb, F.
Call Number: UTM Library 4th Floor: Q183.3.A1 I6 2015
ISBN: 9781433127939
Publication Date: 2015
Interrogating Whiteness and Relinquishing Power: White Faculty’s Commitment to Racial Consciousness in STEM Classrooms is a collection of narratives that will transform the teaching of any faculty member who teaches in the STEM system. The book links issues of inclusion to teacher excellence at all grade levels by illuminating the critical influence that racial consciousness has on the behaviors of White faculty in the classroom. It functions as an analytical tool, scaffolding exemplary examples to inspire readers to engage in the complex and difficult work of assessing their own racial consciousness and teacher effectiveness. White pre-service teachers in STEM education rarely see the importance of the link between race and the teaching and learning of mathematics, in part because the White faculty who are teaching these subjects rarely engage in the study of racial projects in STEM. From this perspective, the authors of this book contend that the classroom is a racialized environment that, if not addressed, can reproduce racial structures and hierarchies in cyclical ways.

Research Articles

Collins, K. H. (2018). Confronting color-blind STEM talent development: Toward a contextual model for Black student STEM identity. Journal of Advanced Academics, 29(2), 143–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932202X18757958

ABSTRACT

What is Black student’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identity? The author addresses this question through a synthesis of the literature that includes studies that explore Black student identity. Background information regarding STEM achievement and persistence followed by empirical studies that explore STEM attitudes among Black students at various educational levels are examined to determine a definition for STEM identity. The findings revealed a void in the research that emphasizes Black students’ academic strengths and positive role of cultural values as approaches to learning. Two models, Whiting’s Black Male Scholar Identity and Ford’s Female Achievement Model for Excellence (F²AME), are highlighted as particularly promising models to inform Black students’ STEM identity. The author introduces key factors of Black student STEM identity as a framework and calls for action to redress the racial and gender inequalities in current STEM talent development that contribute to underrepresentation throughout STEM pipeline.

Lewis Ellison, T., Joseph, N., & Thomas, J. O. (2023). A Call to Action: Exploring Intersectional Analyses of Black Fathers and Daughters in STEM Learning. Equity & Excellence in Education, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2023.2262484

ABSTRACT

Black fathers and daughters are the least explored relationship within parent-child and STEM research. This article serves as an examination of the literature around their relationships and STEM learning and as a call to action. Intersectionality, as an analytic lens, examines Black fathers’ familial and STEM relationships over time and Black women’s and girls’ (BWG’s) interest and competence in STEM, as well as how systemic factors of gendered racism, classism, and oppression impacted BWG’s aspirations in STEM, computing, and mathematics fields. Data yielded 29 publications addressing Black fathers and daughters in STEM, their relationships, and BWG’s interest and competence in STEM, computing, and mathematics learning. Findings reveal that Black fathers’ roles in their daughter’s STEM lives helps develop positive representations of themselves and their cultural backgrounds. This acknowledgement produces a new level of understanding of Black fathers and girls’ engagement in informal and formal STEM learning environments.

Young, J., & Young, J. L. (2018). We can achieve if we receive: Examining the effects of out-of-school time activities on Black student achievement in mathematics. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2), 182–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1506952

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of out-of-school time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities to differentially influence mathematics achievement in black students. This study utilized propensity score matching to examine the acute effect of OST STEM on the mathematics achievement of black students. A sample of students (N = 3,763) was drawn from the HSLS09/12 for this study. After propensity score matching, a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Participation in OST activities had a statistically significant main effect on the mathematics achievement of black students (d = .18). This is important because the effect size data suggest that black students who participate in STEM-focused OST activities in mathematics will score, on average, higher than approximately 60% of black students who do not participate in these activities. The study contributes to the literature on black student achievement, OST STEM, and the influence of mathematics dispositions on educational outcomes. Recommendations to overcome common OST STEM participation barriers are provided.

Dissertations

Williams, M. A. (2021). A case study of secondary and postsecondary Black STEM excellence in a Black metropolis [Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.

ABSTRACT

All in all, this case study examines the cross-pollination of high achievement and representation of Black high school students in STEM, mechanisms and resources enabling school success in STEM, and school and individual factors that promote high attainment for Black men and women in STEM beyond high school. Qualitative data collection and analysis is performed in the first phase. In this phase, the researcher interviewed 16 uniquely gifted Black alumni and students of Georgia Institute of Technology—a prestigious STEM-focused postsecondary institution located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The second phase is a quantitative descriptive analysis that contextualizes the K-12 journeys of the 16 participants representing Georgia Tech. The third element of this study is qualitative inquiry of a large urban school system in Metro Atlanta to investigate their mechanisms that enable school success in STEM for Black students at the secondary level. This study implements the anti-deficit achievement conceptual framework to understand how outliers succeed.

Academic News

Cross, A. (2022, February 7). Celebrating Black excellence in STEM. The Maine Campus. https://mainecampus.com/category/opinion/2022/02/celebrating-black-excellence-in-stem/

Blacks in energy. (2015). U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology, 39(3), 60–63. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43773358