Na'ilah Suad Nasir & Sepehr Vakil

Read Here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508406.2017.1314215

• Analyzes the culture of two learning communities (Technology Academy and Mathematical Sciences Academy) to see how the culture of specific programs can actually filter which students attend
  • even if they are not explicitly racialized
  • even it is ultimately students’ choices whether or not they apply to a certain academy.

so... school culture can genuinely affect who even chooses to apply (ex. if they don't feel like it's a safe space for them, if they're the only minority, if they don't feel "good enough", if they don't think they'll fit in). This ultimately leads to school segregation. It's also similar to how parents choose to enroll their kids in schools with populations that they want to be apart of (school is a community after all!) — you see this in Nice White Parents Episode 1 when they need to "make the leap" together.

The design of STEM learning contexts actually carries affordances for racialization

• reproduces racial and gender inequality through its racialized learning pathways.
• I thought it was interesting to use the word “affordances” as many design classes have you thinking about the affordances of products (i.e. outward door handles signalling that you should pull instead of push the door open) or the affordances of digital interfaces (i.e. a digital button signals that you should click on it, serving as a call to action). I’ve never heard affordances used in the context of systems and general environments, but it makes a lot of sense. The use of the word “affordances,” in this case as a byproduct of these students’ learning environments, removes the onus or “blame” for any differences in success from the capabilities and identities of these individual students. It places the responsibility on the shoulders of the system they are placed into and the learning pathways they have access to.
• The “Critical Narrative” — racialized learning pathways were maintained in certain schools leading to exclusivity and microaggressions
• The “Deficit Narrative” — places the lack of representation of African American students in “rigorous spaces because they were unprepared or unwilling to do the work.”
  • The fact that some educators actually reflected these views is incredibly disheartening to think about!!!

Some students felt unsupported and ostracized due to their identity

• led them to doubt whether they were smart enough or whether they belonged in certain classroom settings.
• IMPOSTER SYNDROME!!

What To Do?

• Intentionally design STEM contexts to offer more expansive learning pathways
  • support a wider range of audiences
  • disrupt negative racialization and inequality that is commonly reinforced

How can northwestern do better with its STEM/CS curriculum? Should Northwestern be integrating more intentionally designed STEM activities/classes in order to address broader and racial justice issues?