Young women of color figuring science and identity within and beyond an afterschool science program

Rahm, Jrène; Gonsalves, Allison J.; Lachaîne, Audrey

doi:10.1080/10508406.2021.1977646

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The perspective article builds on past research that has provided insights as to how learners and teachers see themselves in science and are recognized by others as science persons (Carlone and Johnson, 2007;Avraamidou, 2020;Rahm, 2021;Rahm et al, 2022). Subsequent studies have focused more deeply on the situated nature of identity in multiple sociopolitical realities and its constituted nature by systems of dominance and oppression.…”

Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Avraamidou's (2021) study of conferred or withheld recognition and its underlying structure-agency dialectic has led to a deeper understanding of the politicized nature of recognition and how identity intersects with race, gender, social class, religion, and learner's ethnic/cultural identities. Yet, we contend that stories of science identities in the making are not simply about recognition per se but also stories about affective and more than human relations in place, and complex entanglements that take shape and shape us as we live and move in and through life (Avraamidou, 2020;Rahm et al, 2022). Who we have been, are, and can become are processes entangled in trails of life (Ingold, 2011) or trajectories of growth, knottings (i.e., or the making of knots which attests to nonlinear and messy movements), and meshworks (lines coming together in a multitude of ways attesting to the non-linear and messiness yet also complex weaving together of lines resulting in the creation of something new, attesting to the ever emergent nature of identity).…”

Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Who we have been, are, and can become are processes entangled in trails of life (Ingold, 2011) or trajectories of growth, knottings (i.e., or the making of knots which attests to nonlinear and messy movements), and meshworks (lines coming together in a multitude of ways attesting to the non-linear and messiness yet also complex weaving together of lines resulting in the creation of something new, attesting to the ever emergent nature of identity). We contend that attending to identity in the making in practice is essential and offers valuable insights into this dynamic process that constitutes the continuous remaking of selves in science and its entanglement in trails of life that actual living implies (Ingold, 2011;Rahm, 2021;Rahm et al, 2022). Given such a conceptualization of identity, we ask, how do we then, as educators, work with youth to co-design socially and culturally relevant, meaningful, and empowering spaces within which becoming can be unpacked and reimagined in ways empowering to youth who are marginalized within science education?…”

Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Refiguring research stories of science identity by attending to the embodied, affective, and non-human

Rahm

Gonsalves²

2023

Front. Educ.

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This perspective article draws on conversations with a program coordinator in a community organization that guided the development of an after school Convoclub for girls, which focused on understanding the role of science in their lives. We examine our conversations with the program coordinator to understand how affective placemaking, brought about by engagement in a digital storytelling project, created a new space for girls' engagement in science. We describe these conversations as part of our “research story”—a term intended to highlight the importance of storying in postqualitative methods. We draw on data from a qualitative case study of the co-designed science activities in Convoclub with a special focus on conversations with its program director and our joint work in the design of the club activities over time (i.e., dialogue circles with the six youth participants, a digital storytelling project, and a video documentary about science). Presented in three vignettes, we address the evolution of the club activities and its implications for designing spaces for learning and becoming informal science learning environments supportive of empowering identities in science understood through framing from a posthumanist perspective. Throughout, we consider the implications of refiguring research stories of identity by attending to the mundane yet also emergent stories of assemblages—affectively charged associations of people, places, and things. We consider what this orientation brings not only to the telling of identity stories but also to the co-design of learning spaces and considerations about whose voices and stories are told and heard in science spaces.

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Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Groundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Refiguring research stories of science identity by attending to the embodied, affective, and non-human

Rahm

Gonsalves²

2023

Front. Educ.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As such, research shows that the underrepresentation of Black and Brown girls is not related to their academic merits or interests (Chapman & Feldman, 2017; National Research Council, 2012; Visintainer, 2020), but rather associated with racism rooted in racialized histories, which manifests itself through systemic inequities and racist ideologies or narratives. Within the figured worlds of science many Black and Brown youth occupy, dominant narratives communicate racialized messages about what science is, who can do science, and who can be a scientist (Carlone et al, 2014; Mensah & Jackson, 2018; Visintainer, 2020), influencing their current and developing science identities (Rahm et al, 2022).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the experiences that multilingual youth collect from interacting within their science learning spaces cannot be fully grasped or understood without also considering how their racial, linguistic, and gendered “social differences” (Avraamidou, 2020, p. 328) intersect with the “structural complexities” (Rahm et al, 2022, p. 5)—such as being from or representing Black and Brown nondominant communities—as these multilingual youth learn how to navigate their evolving science identities, in relation to existing norms and dominant images. However, even when these Black and Brown students adopt and model the social and cultural practices of the dominant white group (Bell et al, 2016), integrating “traditional dominant western views” (Mensah & Jackson, 2018, p. 4), they continue to be positioned and perceived as others .…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invisible multilingual Black and Brown girls: Raciolinguistic narratives of identity in science education

Harper

Kayumova

2022

J Res Sci Teach

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Black and Brown girls are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Although studies have examined the reasons for this by exploring Black and Brown girls' experiences based on culture, gender, and race, there is a need for specifically understanding how language contributes to racialized experiences in science education. This study fills this critical gap by presenting narratives of three academically talented multilingual girls from Black and Brown communities. Utilizing semi‐structured interviews, self‐identifying questionnaires, and identity‐as‐narrative analysis, this study demonstrates how the racialized experiences of these multilingual Black and Brown girls influenced their relations to science, ideas about the attributes of a science person, and developing science identities. The findings suggest that although the girls had a strong affiliation with science and academic achievement in science, the girls' experiences were racialized through raciolinguistic ideologies and dominant cultural practices of science, which left them invisibilized and unsure about pursuing a future career in STEM. The implications of this study underline the importance of looking at the problem of underrepresentation as an issue of identification, belonging, and representation rather than an of academic skill or interest.

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Infrastructural injustices in community‐driven afterschool STEAM

Shea

Jurow

Schiffer³

et al. 2023

J Res Sci Teach

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This article offers a qualitative analysis of infrastructural in/justice in a community‐partnered design intervention focused on developing high‐tech low‐cost Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) projects. We examined the kinds of infrastructural injustices that were present in three afterschool programs and how it shaped STEAM education designs and opportunities for learning with technology to take hold. Combining insights and methods from studies of science and technology with Critical Race Theory, we developed the concept of infrastructural in/justice to illuminate the challenges of organizing STEAM for justice. Infrastructural injustices were identified at the level of dominant narratives that shaped the ideas, resources, and values that undergirded programming and pedagogical practices. We found that community educators were central to creating more just STEAM infrastructures. They drew out unjust infrastructural narratives, created counternarratives that allowed young people of color space to expand their technology and STEAM practices, and connected these practices to their everyday lives, identities, and emerging interests. We detail how working‐class community educators of color are dreaming and enacting new ways to engage with STEAM and STEAM education alongside young people. As we have shown, their ideas and practices combined with the young people's visions for the future challenged neoliberal and racialized narratives of STEAM. Despite community educators' of color critical expertise, their jobs remained precarious within informal STEAM infrastructures. To design for and sustain more just community‐driven STEAM activities we argue that the field must attend not only to how the work of infrastructuring to how community‐driven STEAM is done but also by whom. These activities, organized by community educators of color, must be valued and protected through the classification systems within informal STEAM infrastructures in order to design and sustain more just community‐driven STEAM initiatives.

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Young women of color figuring science and identity within and beyond an afterschool science program

Cited by 14 publications

References 38 publications

Refiguring research stories of science identity by attending to the embodied, affective, and non-human

Refiguring research stories of science identity by attending to the embodied, affective, and non-human

Invisible multilingual Black and Brown girls: Raciolinguistic narratives of identity in science education

Infrastructural injustices in community‐driven afterschool STEAM

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