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STEM U.N.I.T.Y.: UPLIFTING NON-DOMINANT VOICES IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND YOUTH STEM SPACES FOR BLACK GIRLS THROUGH ANTIRACIST PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES

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posted on 2024-05-17, 17:12 authored by Jennifer Beckwith, Ashley Royal

The lack of intentional professional development for STEM stakeholders and culturally relevant STEM spaces that are inclusive of Black girls’ identities in the K-12 educational system contributes to the continual widening gap of the lack of Black girls’ retention and interest in science and math spaces. If this systemic problem is to be reformed, district and campus leaders within a school system must work together collaboratively and strategically. Leaders from a macro and micro level must work together to curate STEM spaces that develop Black girl STEM identities, create experiential learning opportunities, design culturally relevant inclusive learning spaces, and provide differentiated professional development to STEM educators rooted in culturally relevant instructional practices. This dissertation of practice is unique, for we address this problem holistically, utilizing our positionalities as district and campus leaders within an urban charter network. Recognizing the multiple intersecting initiatives that work in tandem at the district and school levels, it was imperative to unite as co-researchers within the same network to utilize our realm of influence and positionalities at the district and school level to aggressively tackle Black girl retention in STEM spaces beyond middle school years. This qualitative study intentionally uplifts Black girls and STEM educators’ voices in the design process by implementing three multifaceted interventions. Through the exploration of self-efficacy theory, institutional theory, critical race theory, and self-determination theory, we constructed anti-racist interventions that can easily be replicated in any school setting for STEM educators and Black girls.

Keywords: Professional development, Black girls, Culturally Relevant, Science, Math, STEM identity, Inclusiveness, Retention, Engagement

History

Publisher

ProQuest

Language

English

Notes

Jointly-authored doctoral thesis. An identical copy of the thesis was submitted to ETDAdmin by each author and assigned 2 separate ETDAdmin submission IDs: 12232 (Beckwith) and 12235 (Royal). ETDAdmin also produced two identical copies of the thesis file and assigned two discrete local identifiers: Beckwith_american_0008E_12232 and Royal_american_0008E_12235.

Committee chair

William N. Thomas, IV

Committee member(s)

Dia Jones; Shanta Smith

Degree discipline

Education Policy and Leadership

Degree grantor

American University. School of Education

Degree level

  • Doctoral

Degree name

Ed.D. in Education Policy and Leadership, American University, May 2024

Local identifier

Beckwith_american_0008E_12232; Royal_american_0008E_12235

Media type

application/pdf

Pagination

218 pages

Submission ID

12232; 12235