Transforming undergraduate education by building racial equity-centered STEM courses

Increasingly, the natural sciences are recognizing the need to address social theories in the study of natural systems. However, postsecondary science education has been shaped by Eurocentric ideologies that depict science as culturally neutral, color-blind, and meritocratic. Institutional change that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion should include university support for faculty to develop competencies in designing and teaching courses for racial equity in STEM. Our team is designing a 2-quarter undergraduate course sequence that engages prospective elementary school teachers in "Science and Engineering for a Just Society": a project-based, interdisciplinary science content course that incorporates contemporary issues (Flint water crisis, CRISPR and genetic engineering, heat islands and institutional racism/redlining), practices (computational modeling, GIS), and ethics ("should we"? vs "can we"?) of science, situated within the economic, social, and political contexts in which science and science decision-making always live. The proposed course foregrounds anti-racist pedagogies to highlight the ways in which science has been used as both a means of oppression of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) and as a tool for advancement. This course is being co-designed by science faculty from across life, physical, and earth sciences who have themselves studied their pedagogy. Using case study analysis, our work describes how seeking institutional approval for this course involves pushing against multiple institutional barriers, including: (1) The curriculum approval committee, tasked with aligning courses to university standards, which has had members critique the proposed course content in political terms. (2) Deans, who have suggested removing race-conscious language from the course description, even though the course is not offered in their School. (3) Disciplinary faculty who lack positional power and security, and are hesitant to advocate for the course in their departments. These barriers resist movement toward greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in university courses.