Much of the research in science education that explores the influence of a racial and gendered identity on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement for Black women situate their identities primarily as responses to the oppression and struggles they face in STEM. In this study, we use Phenomenological Variant Ecological Systems Theory as a strengths‐based approach to investigate 10 undergraduate Black women’s perceptions of race and gender on their STEM identity development and engagement. The qualitative analysis of interview and journal data revealed these women enter STEM experiences cognizant of their race and gender identities, naming them in isolation and intersectionally as a potential risk or as being protective, positive, and empowering for their STEM engagement. These findings illuminate the importance of Black women self‐authoring their identities in STEM contexts, both in naming what is salient and defining what those names mean, and have implications for STEM retention and matriculation efforts.

This essay addresses a call for research involving African Americans to interpret data from the historical, contemporary, and cultural experiences of African Americans. The essay argues for a science education research approach that explicitly considers the positionality of African Americans in the United States. This positionality involves the negotiation of three distinct and conflicting realms of experience that pertain to oppression, African-rooted Black culture, and the dominant culture in the United States. The theoretical tool proposed in this essay accommodates the positionality of African Americans by superimposing it upon a model that synthesizes the ideas of Michael Cole (cultural-historical activity theory) and Urie Bronfenbrenner (ecology of human development).

As other countries vigorously promote rapid advancement in science, optimizing the participation of all students in the United States in science is imperative. This study focused on African American students and examined their science achievement in relation to Black Cultural Ethos (BCE), a construct rooted in psychology. Via qualitative and quantitative data obtained from a non‐random control group design, the study addressed three questions: (1) With respect to BCE, what characterizes the natural instructional contexts of two middle school science teachers? (2) What characterizes the achievement of African American students in contexts that incorporate BCE and contexts that do not? (3) What achievement patterns, if any, exist in BCE and non‐BCE instructional contexts? With regard to the natural contexts, the teachers did not incorporate BCE even when the opportunities were available to do so. Within these non‐BCE contexts, the group's mean scores on the study‐specific test that aligned with instruction decreased from pretest to posttest with approximately one‐third of the students' scores improving. When a context was altered with a moderate effect size of 0.47 to include BCE, the group's mean scores on the aforementioned test increased from pretest to posttest with two‐thirds of the students' scores improving. An illustration of the interplay between BCE and context and a consideration of the interplay as a mediating factor in research involving African American students encapsulate the significance and implications of the study's findings. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 665–683, 2008

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