Using storytelling and a justice oriented STEM after-school club as critical tools for cultivating African American youths' STEM identities

这一发展中的创新项目探索了根本性的康复，作为一种方法来创建课外STEM节目，欢迎、重视和支持非裔美国青年形成积极的STEM身份认同。根治疗法是一种以力量为基础、以资产为中心的方法，它融合了文化、身份认同、公民行动和集体疗法，以培养年轻人应用学术知识造福社区的能力。该项目使用了一部新开发的漫画小说作为模型，展示了从事激进的治愈过程并使用STEM技术促进社会正义的样子。这部漫画小说《当蜘蛛网联合起来》讲述了一个非裔美国人社区使用STEM技术为他们的社区倡导清洁的空气和水的真实故事。支持青年在他们的社会政治背景下考虑他们自己的经历和情感，认识到他们并不孤单，并与他们的社区成员合作，通过STEM对社会变革采取关键行动。STEM俱乐部的活动包括非裔美国本科生的指导，故事写作，进行以司法为导向的环境科学调查，以及应用他们的调查结果来提出和实施社区行动计划。这些活动旨在培养青年抵抗压迫的能力，并利用STEM技术的力量为他们和他们的社区造福。克莱姆森大学与北部城市联盟合作，在三个地点的两个服务青年的社区组织中，聘请了100名以非裔美国人为主的中学生和32名非裔美国本科生从事治愈司法工作。这些年轻人在开发这个项目的图形小说和课程方面发挥了领导作用，为期一年的课后STEM俱乐部，两者都建立在根治疗法的基本组成部分之上。该项目使用QUAL→QUANT平行研究设计来调查图形小说的开发和使用如何被用作治愈正义的工具，以及激进治愈的各种组成部分(批判意识、文化真实性、自我认识、激进希望、情感和社会支持以及力量和韧性)如何影响非裔美国青年的STEM身份认同发展。研究人员仔细审查访谈、实地观察和项目文件，以处理他们的调查，并利用调查数据的统计分析来提供信息并对定性数据结果进行三角测量。因此，定性和定量数据被用来挑战关于非裔美国青年STEM成就和轨迹的主导叙述。该项目促进了对激进治疗的发现和理解，作为一种在非正式STEM计划中明确评价非裔美国人的文化、身份、历史和声音的方法。该奖项由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径来扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验的途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Innovations in Development project explores radical healing as an approach to create after-school STEM programming that welcomes, values and supports African American youth to form positive STEM identities. Radical healing is a strength-based, asset centered approach that incorporates culture, identity, civic action, and collective healing to build the capacity of young people to apply academic knowledge for the good of their communities. The project uses a newly developed graphic novel as a model of what it looks like to engage in the radical healing process and use STEM technology for social justice. This graphic novel, When Spiderwebs Unite, tells the true story of an African American community who used STEM technology to advocate for clean air and water for their community. Youth are supported to consider their own experiences and emotions in their sociopolitical contexts, realize they are not alone, and collaborate with their community members to take critical action towards social change through STEM. The STEM Club activities include mentoring by African American undergraduate students, story writing, conducting justice-oriented environmental sciences investigations, and applying the results of their investigations to propose and implement community action plans. These activities aim to build youth’s capacity to resist oppression and leverage the power of STEM technology for their benefit and that of their communities. Clemson University, in partnership with the Urban League of the Upstate, engages 100 predominantly African American middle school students and 32 African American undergraduate students in healing justice work, across two youth-serving, community-based organizations at three sites. These young people assume a leadership role in developing this project’s graphic novel and curriculum for a yearlong, after-school STEM Club, both constructed upon the essential components of radical healing. This project uses a qual→quant parallel research design to investigate how the development and use of a graphic novel could be used as a healing justice tool, and how various components of radical healing (critical consciousness, cultural authenticity, self knowledge, radical hope, emotional and social support, and strength and resilience) affect African American youths’ STEM identity development. Researchers scrutinize interviews, field observations, and project documents to address their investigation and utilize statistical analyses of survey data to inform and triangulate the qualitative data findings. Thus, qualitative and quantitative data are used to challenge dominant narratives regarding African American youth’s STEM achievements and trajectories. The project advances discovery and understanding of radical healing as an approach to explicitly value African Americans’ cultures, identities, histories, and voices within informal STEM programming.This award is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiencesThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.